Poor Old SO2

I think I would be a rich man indeed for every time I hear someone say " ah its the sulphites in wine that make me feel really unwell after drinking".

The conventional wisdom is that SO2 is the root of all evil when it comes to consuming wine but far from the fact it is an important part of the wine making process which occurs during the initial fermentation processes where yeast is metabolised .

SO2 is actually designed to protect against the incidence of microbial & bacterial activity in your wine.

Wine without SO2 is prone to potential oxidisation and the development of " off odours:" which are refereed to as aldehyde

Like it or not SO2 is a natural part of the fermentation process so it is evident in the development of wine from the onset, its use here in Australia is carefully defined by the Australian Food Standards Act Section 4.5.1 where the prescribed limits of added SO2 are listed.

It is has the added benefit of allowing wine to maintain its freshness, quality and shelf life as well as protecting you from possible bacterial infection which may occur in the bottle at some later stage.

Does this mean that all wine makers adhere to these standards well that in itself is a vexing question but most play with the required guidelines and standards.

In red wine wine can contain 150ppm, white wine 200ppm & 400ppm for the production of sweet wines , in Australia if there is greater than 10mg/l of SO2 present in the wine then the wines label most show contains sulphites.

So we are taking about minuscule amounts of SO2 being present in your wine.

Good wine makers go along way to ensure that they play by the rules and do not what is classically called "as over sulphuring", you can smell it if a wine has been over sulphured as you will not that rotten egg smell is present.

There are those amongst us who are sulphite intolerant & insensitive which has been calculated at less than 1% of the population, for those people its not only drinking wine which may put them at risk as sulphites are widely used as a major preservative/additive in many of the commonly consumed foods that we eat on a daily basis.

Sulphites are not just confined to wine , many of the foods listed below have higher levels of concentrated SO2 than wine , this is often a little known known of recognised fact these include:

• Cured meats
• Butter
• Peanut Butter - (2000ppm SO2)
• Cordial - (600ppm SO2)
• Parmesan cheese
• Mushrooms
• Apple cidar
• Canned & frozen foods - (3000ppm SO2)
• Salt - (1000ppm SO2)
• Coral
• Preserved Fish - (2700ppm SO2)
• Dried fruit- (3000ppm SO2)
• Tea
• Dried herbs

Next time you are out shopping have a look at how many food products actually contain SO2 or related Sulphite you will be surprised, the key to managing this situation is to better understand the allowed limits of SO2 in what you are consuming .

Please don't simply blame wine the next time you wake up a bit seedy, you might want to think what else you have consumed that night and how much you had of it this might go along way in explaining why you are feeling so poorly.

So next time you hears someone light up about sulphites in wine and how bad they are for you this piece might help guide the conversation and educate the ill-informed .

Happy drinking kids.