Which wines have sulfates

This guide will clue you in to everything you need to know about sulfites so you can make an informed decision before picking your next bottle of wine. Sulfites are inorganic salts that contain the sulfite ion and can act as preservatives and antioxidants, namely for food and drinks. Some examples of sulfites include sulfur dioxide, sodium bisulfites, and metabisulfites. They can reduce browning on fruits and vegetables, prevent the growth of yeast and bacteria in wine, and even stabilize the potency of medications.

Plenty of foods think dried fruit, canned soups, and prepackaged deli meats have added sulfites, while others such as chocolate, black tea, eggs, and fermented foods like pickles, sauerkraut, and kimchi contain natural sulfites. Wine also contains naturally occurring sulfites. Because sulfur dioxide is released as a natural byproduct of the fermentation process during winemaking , it's impossible to have a completely sulfite-free wine.

That said, you can find wines that are made without added sulfites aka lab-created, synthetic sulfites. As mentioned, synthetic sulfites affect wine by acting as a preservative and inhibiting bacterial contamination. Many winemakers use sulfur dioxide to kill off unwanted yeast and bacteria so you don't get an oxidized wine, which could ultimately ruin a wine's taste, texture, color , and appearance.

However, not all wines have added sulfites. For instance, Usual Wines are made without any added sulfites, no sugar, zero chemical additives, and minimal intervention. Sulfite levels are measured in "ppm," or parts per million. In the United States, conventional wines can have up to ppm of sulfites.

By contrast, organic wines max out sulfite levels at just 10ppm, and they must be naturally occurring. Frey winery produces wines made with natural sulfites, but doesn't add any, which means: drink up ASAP. Photo: Courtesy of Frey. If you are allergic, you may get hives and have trouble breathing within 30 minutes of sulfite exposure, and should arm yourself an Asthma rescue inhaler because an order of shrimp has more sulfites than an entire bottle of Sangiovese.

Starting in the s, anti-alcohol lobbyists were trying to pass legislation that would require wines to list their ingredients. Wayyy more. So do those French fries you had at lunch.

Everything from pickles to pizza crust to painkillers contain sulfites. This red blend is a pretty wine, with red fruit and floral essences, and a velvety texture.

Sign up for the best of Food Republic, delivered to your inbox Tuesday and Thursday. Home Recipes Drink Travel. Food Republic March 27, And here are five bottles worth checking out: 1. However, most of this belief is either speculative or in fact wrong, since the food and wine preservative sulfur dioxide SO 2 , called generically sulfite, although present in wines, is much more existent in common foods that do not trigger headache attacks, such as dried fruit… Moreover, recently produced organic wines contain lower levels of sulfites or, indeed, have none at all, but the persistence of the headache triggering potential remains.

In addition, published literature has not yet established any links between the presence of sulfite and headache. That said, many people do experience headaches when drinking red wine, so much so that Red Wine Headache has been acryonmmed to RWH. While the science is as yet unclear, major suspects include histamine and tyramine, two natural chemicals that can mess with blood pressure and lead to headaches.

Fun fact: Red wines have more histamine, but white wines usually have much more sulfite. Or maybe you still think sulfites are giving you a headache. It turns out there is, and that method is far less high-tech than you might think. The solution lies in a familiar brown bottle in every suburban bathroom: hydrogen peroxide.