Sulfur in wine: myths and reality. Sulfur dioxide in wine - an imaginary danger or a real threat

Recently, disputes about sulfur dioxide in wine as a phenomenon have not subsided. Winemakers and fans of their creations are divided into two camps. Some criticize the use of a chemical additive in the wine making process, emphasizing the harm that SO 2 can cause to human health. Others argue that without this additive it is impossible to produce quality wines. The debate has been going on for decades, and it has come to state regulation around the world, especially in the EU countries.

Why is sulfur dioxide added to wine?

Sulfur dioxide (sulfur oxide, sulfur dioxide, additive E220, SO 2) is used in winemaking as a preservative because of its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Molecular SO 2 is an extremely effective antibiotic that kills most microorganisms (including wild yeasts) that can cause wine spoilage. Also, its antimicrobial properties can reduce the amount of volatile acids (for example, acetic bacteria are aerobes and are very sensitive to sulfuric acid, which limits the access of oxygen to the drink).

In addition, sulfur dioxide is credited with antioxidant properties, allegedly preventing wine from oxidizing. In fact, SO 2 is not a direct antioxidant, but sulfur is contained in wine not only in the form of molecular SO 2, but also in the form of bisulfite (HSO 3 -) and sulfite (SO 3 2-). So sulfur bisulfite forms a bond with aldehydes (the culprits of oxidation odors) to form a harmless, odorless molecule. In general, if we summarize all this pseudo-scientific text, it turns out that sulfur dioxide is the most useful and effective tool in the hands of a winemaker, with which he can protect his product and provide him with guaranteed quality.

And is sulfur really harmful to health?

Of course, sulfur dioxide has a negative effect on the body, because it is toxic. When a high concentration of SO 2 gas is inhaled (and in the normal state it is a gas), serious poisoning occurs, which affects, first of all, the lungs and can lead to their swelling. But, as you understand, the concentration of sulfur in wine is on a completely different level and it can harm only those people who have an individual sensitivity to this gas (for example, in the USA, 0.4% of the population is allergic to SO2). Also, the use of foods treated with sulfur dioxide is highly discouraged for people with asthma. In other cases, this preservative is absolutely harmless, of course, if we are talking about wine.

Surely you have friends who regularly suffer from headaches and redness of the skin in the morning after drinking red wine the day before. Many people blame it on sulfur dioxide. It's a delusion. White wine contains more SO2 than red wine, and dessert wines even more. In fact, the negative impact of wine on the body is a complex and not fully understood mechanism. In addition, many people often forget that sulfur dioxide (E220 food additive) is used everywhere in the food industry, especially in the production of dried fruits, where, as a result, the level of SO 2 is an order of magnitude higher than in any wine.

In a small bag of dried fruits, sulfur dioxide (preservative E220) is several times more than in a bottle of wine.

Curious. And how do you know if there is SO2 in a purchased bottle of wine?

If this is domestic wine, then no way - we have E220 included in the list of permitted food additives, as completely safe for health (when used in reasonable quantities). In the US, since 1988, all wine producers have been required to write on the bottle "contains sulfites" (contains sulfites) if the level of SO 2 in the drink exceeds 10 parts per million (about 10 mg / l), and this is almost all the wine of the American market. Since 2005, all European wines must also contain such an inscription.

In the USA, as in Australia, up to 250 ml/l of sulfur dioxide is allowed in dry wines and up to 350 ml/l in dessert wines (residual sugar is more than 35 g/l). In the European Union, the content of SO 2 in dry red wines should not exceed 160 mg / l, in sweet whites - no more than 300 mg / l, and for botrytised, such - no more than 400 mg / l.

Aren't there wines that don't have sulfur dioxide?

These do not exist in nature. The fact is that sulfur dioxide is a by-product of fermentation. All wines, without exception, contain between 10 and 100 ppm SO 2 , even if no sulfur has been used in the winemaking process. But this does not mean that all manufacturers use sulfur dioxide in the preparation of their product. The method of obtaining wine without chemical preservatives or with minimal use of them is called "natural winemaking".

In the US, every bottle of sulfur-free wine is labeled with the USDA Organic logo. This is the official certificate of the Ministry of Agriculture of the country.

Yeah, that is, there are still “normal” wines?

Fans of the theory of "natural winemaking" believe that sulfur not only kills everything bad, but also kills a lot of good. Such winemakers use only organic, very high-quality raw materials, and also maintain impeccable cleanliness in production. But even they use SO 2 . Yes, in minimal quantities and only when bottling a drink (in conventional production, sulfur dioxide is often used and at different stages, for example, after picking berries, during their crushing, during the fermentation process, during bottling), but they are added. Also, sulfur is often used, including by "natural winemakers", to fumigate wooden barrels that are used to collect juice, ferment or age the drink (it is known that burning 5 g of sulfur in a 225-liter wooden barrel increases the level of sulfur dioxide in wine by 10 -20 mg/l). Be that as it may, there are wines where the sulfur dioxide content is so minimal that it will not even cause allergic reactions in people with preservative sensitivities.

The site www.vinsnaturels.fr (and others like it) has a small list of French wine producers who are engaged in "natural winemaking" without the use of sulfur dioxide.

Why is SO2 featured in the wine recipes on your website then?

Please note that almost always when the ingredients of any wine contain sulfur dioxide among other things (usually Campden tablets), I emphasize the voluntary use of it. But if you want to get a quality fruit wine that, when opened in a few years, will have a fresh and clean taste, as it was originally intended, add a little SO 2 to it before bottling, you will not regret it. This is especially important for white grape wines and wines that are low in acids and alcohol.

It turns out that some homemade wines need more sulfur?

Any winemaker will tell you that you can't make good aged wine without using sulfur dioxide. Actually it is not. It is possible to cope with unwanted microflora and fauna with banal sanitation, but it is much more difficult to deal with oxidative processes that greatly affect the taste, color and aroma of the drink without sulfur. This means that in order not to use SO 2 and at the same time get good wine, you need to be able to control oxidative processes. There are several tricks for this:

1. The lower the pH level of the wine (the more acidic it is), the less SO 2 is required for a normal result. Therefore, it is important to monitor the acidity of wines and increase it if necessary with tartaric acid (the optimal acidity level of must and wine is usually indicated in the recipe).
2. The higher the alcohol content of wine, the more resistant it is to spoilage and oxidation.
3. The use of screw and glass corks instead of corks will prevent oxygen from entering the bottle, which will minimize oxidative processes.

To answer the question briefly, yes, wines with less acidity and alcohol content are much more prone to spoilage, which means they require more sulfitation. Such wines, of course, include all table dry and semi-dry wines, as well as all others made from fruits and berries with a low acid content without further lowering the pH.

I make just such a wine. How should I use sulfur dioxide?

The most practical source of SO 2 for home winemaking is potassium metabisulphite (potassium pyrosulfite, K 2 S 2 O 5 ), a salt composed of 57% sulfur dioxide. It can be a powder or Campden tablets, which are more familiar to many experienced winemakers and brewers and can be purchased at almost any wine or brewery store. Typically, one such tablet contains 0.44 g of potassium metabisulphite, half of which is sulfur dioxide. Potassium pyrosulfite is replaced by sodium metabisulphite, but it should only be used to sterilize equipment: a) it is better not to disturb the sodium balance in the body; b) potassium ions in wine are more beneficial. Carefully read the instructions for the purchased tablets or powder, where the dosage and method of administration are usually clearly described.

Carefully follow the instructions on the packaging of the sulfur dioxide source you are using. If you overdo it with its amount, the wine will start to taste bitter and smell of sulfur. A high concentration of SO 2 is capable of destroying tannins and aromatic substances of fruit and berry juices.

I will not describe the full range of applications of SO 2 in home winemaking (see the article mentioned in the paragraph above), but will briefly touch only on the last stage of wine preparation - its storage, assuming that you are engaged in "natural winemaking". Before bottling wine with normal acidity, add 1 Campden tablet per 4-5 liters to it, after crushing it into a powder or dissolving it in a small amount of pure water (or use about half a gram of potassium pyrosulfite salt).

This amount of sulfur dioxide (approximately 50 mg/l) will slightly increase the sulphation of the wine, while still providing adequate protection against oxidation and bacterial attack. By normal acidity, I mean approximately pH = 3.4…3.5 for red grape wines, 3.2…3.3 for whites. If the pH is higher, more SO 2 will have to be used (for example, if the pH of red grape wine is 3.8, then 100 mg / l of sulfur dioxide must be added to it).

Is sulfur dioxide dangerous to human health?
In short, it's not 100% harmless.

Is wine with sulfur dioxide harmful?
Much more harmless than a bag of dried fruit.

SO 2 can cause adverse effects in asthmatics even at doses as low as 1 mg/l. For this reason, some doctors, just in case, recommend that asthmatics stop drinking wine altogether.

For most people, sulfur dioxide is safe - in the doses that are used in winemaking. Yes, those who drink wine regularly may exceed the norm recommended by doctors. However, there is reason to believe that this rate is underestimated - just in case.

The mass concentration of total sulfur dioxide in Russian dry table wines and dry table wine materials should not exceed 200 mg/dm3; in semi-dry, semi-sweet and sweet - no more than 300 mg/dm3.

In the European Union, the maximum allowable concentrations of SO 2 for wines of various types are set: from 160 mg / l for dry reds to 300 mg / l for sweet whites and 400 mg / l for botrytised wines. In Australia, the law allows 250 mg/l in dry wines and 350 mg/l in wines with a residual sugar content above 35 g/l.

In the US, the maximum permitted SO 2 level is the same as in Australia. At the same time, wines in which it is more than 10 mg / l must contain the inscription “contains sulfur dioxide”.

By the way: sulfur dioxide is found in any wine, even if it was not added at all during production. The fact is that SO 2 is a by-product of fermentation. Yeast in the course of their work produces approximately 5-15 mg / l in a completely natural way. Therefore, wines with zero SO 2 content do not exist in principle.

In the European Union, there is talk of obliging wine producers to indicate on the labels all possible allergens and their concentrations, and not just the notorious sulfur dioxide.

Based on animal experiments, the World Health Organization has set an RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) for SO 2 at 0.7 mg per kilogram of body weight.

Many people who experience the unpleasant effects of drinking wine - such as headaches, redness - blame sulfur dioxide for this. Partly because it seems to be the first candidate, being a chemical additive, which for most is an automatic evil.

However, the effect of wine on the body, including the negative one, is a truly complex mechanism, the individual factors of which have not yet been fully studied.

At the same time, many foods contain higher levels of SO2 than wine. In particular, in dried fruits it is about 10 times more.

Most food products oxidize when exposed to air or metals. First of all, this applies to fruits and vegetables, which darken very quickly and lose their presentation. It is for this reason that they are processed today sulfur dioxide, a colorless gas that interferes with the fermentation process. It is known in the industry under the code name E220, and can pose a real threat to human life and health.

Benefits of Using Sulfur Dioxide

Why is E220 harmful to the body?

The reaction to sulfur dioxide varies from person to person. However, approximately 10% of the world's population, when eating foods treated with this gas, experience headaches and nausea, experience disorders of the digestive system and complain of heaviness in the stomachs. About 5% of people almost immediately become covered with an allergic rash or face redness of the skin. In people who suffer from asthma, an ordinary apple treated with E220 can cause a severe asthma attack, fraught with death. Runny nose and cough, burning sensation in the throat, and even dysfunction of the speech apparatus - these are not all the side effects that can occur due to sulfur dioxide. It should also be noted that this preservative increases the acidity of gastric juice, which is categorically contraindicated for people suffering from an ulcer or gastritis. For this reason, they should avoid carbonated drinks, packaged juices, beer, and unwashed fruits that contain sulfur dioxide.

All the newspapers and news scare us with preservatives. They are the first and main enemy of a person who is trying to disable the body, rewarding him with serious diseases. This is partly true - many "e-shki" are dangerous and you should try to avoid using them. But even among them, there are those who behave more peacefully. Whether the preservative E220, which is used in winemaking, belongs to them, we will consider below.

A little about E220 - sulfur dioxide

Preservative E220 is obtained by burning sulfur. The resulting gas has an unattractive odor that can be easily dissolved in alcohol or water.

If you look at a special scale in which each preservative is assigned a toxicity class, E220 has class 3. This means that it is moderately dangerous for the body. But if you inhale the sulfur dioxide preservative when it is still in a gaseous form, you can get a minimum of coughing, a maximum of pulmonary edema. The same can be obtained if you consume too many products with this preservative. This is especially detrimental to people with asthma.

Sulfur dioxide is used to process foods to extend their shelf life.

In addition, it is used in the production of juices and meat products. In the latter case, this is done so that it is impossible to determine a fresh product or an already stale one. And of course, the food additive E220 could not bypass alcohol production.

Why do winemakers add sulfur dioxide to wine?

More often than other products, sulfur dioxide is added to. But this additive was not used in the 21st century, and not even in the 20th. The first mentions can be found in ancient Rome. And at the moment it is not so easy to find wine in the composition, which is not E220.

Sulfur dioxide is found at every stage of wine production: it is sprayed on vineyards, fruits are crushed, barrels are fumigated and bottled.

Even in the most one can meet, albeit not a large, but the concentration of sulfur dioxide. This additive is absent only in products that have gone through a long stage of fermentation.

So why is sulfur dioxide added to wine? To preserve the taste characteristics of alcohol.

E220 kills yeast fungi and acts as an antioxidant, that is, it prevents the drink from spoiling quickly.

Wine without sulfur dioxide, which is sold in a simple supermarket, cannot be stored for a long time, and besides it, there has not yet been a way to help combat food spoilage.

E220 is not included in drinks that have a higher degree, since a large amount of alcohol is the best antioxidant and “fighter” with microorganisms.

How does sulfur dioxide affect our body?

The harmful effects of sulfur dioxide on the body were identified more than two hundred years ago. Since then, standards have been established. But unscrupulous manufacturers do not comply with the standards to increase the storage of the drink.

The effect of sulfur dioxide in wine on the body is different for different people. There are those who can drink much more than the norm and feel nothing. But for those whose body is more susceptible, after drinking such wine, nausea, headache, rapid breathing and heartbeat, and speech disorders may occur. In other words, a severe hangover awaits. But if the drink contained a certain amount of sulfites, then the symptoms may worsen.

If you use too much E220, then as a side effect you can observe a general decrease in immunity: proteins are destroyed, metabolism slows down, rashes appear on the skin, brittle hair and nails are observed.

All of the above can only threaten if the daily norm is exceeded. Sulfur dioxide does not accumulate inside the body, it is excreted during the day.

To avoid the consequences you need:

• do not drink alcohol excessively;
• drink wine not immediately after pouring into glasses, but let it stand for a while - a certain amount of preservative will disappear.

Is it possible to buy wine that does not contain E220?

So that drinking does not lead to complications, you need to be able to choose the least harmful wine. Let's say right away - there is no drink in which there would be no sulfur at all, since a certain amount of this substance is released during fermentation.

Choose bottles marked with USDA Organic, Ecocert. This means that there is little sulfur in the product, and it will not cause an allergic reaction even in those who are susceptible to it.

When choosing a drink, remember:

• Red wine has tannin and its presence reduces the need for a food supplement.
• Choose a bottle with a screw or glass stopper, they do not allow oxygen to penetrate, which means that microorganisms will not start up and preservatives will not be required.
• In dry and semi-dry wines, the content of harmful additives is several times less.

This information is not easy to remember, and easy to get confused, so below we present a list of wines without sulfur dioxide:

• "Le Get de Chateau Guiraud";
• "Brunello di Montalcino";
• "Adega de Pegoes".

When drinking alcohol, it is important to observe the boundary, crossing which you can harm yourself and it doesn’t matter if it contains sulfur.

In many white and red wines, producers add a preservative - sulfur dioxide (SO2), or sulfite. There is an opinion that this is a rather dangerous ingredient, which can cause a headache and other troubles. Let's try to find out whether a wine "yeshka" with a three-digit code is really so scary and whether it is worth being afraid of.

Why do we need sulfur

Compounds with this chemical element have been used in winemaking since ancient Greece and Rome. Today they are added at different production stages: when crushing grape berries, after fermentation, in the bottling process. And here's why: sulfur dioxide protects wine from germs and bacteria, as well as from premature oxidation, aging and turning into vinegar. If it is not added, then the wine runs the risk of accidentally fermenting in the bottle, and due to bacteria, it may not have the most pleasant taste and aroma.

Of course, there are modern naturalist winemakers who manage to produce excellent wines with little or no use of sulfites. However, sulfite-free samples are extremely difficult to transport and store. Strong shaking on the road is even more contraindicated for them than for standard bottles, and the aging potential is a big question.

Color matters

In the modern world, there are quite strict restrictions on the maximum content of sulfites in wine. Moreover, over the past century in different countries, the norms have decreased by an average of three times. So, for example, for dry whites in Russia there is a limit of 200 mg/l, in the USA - 350 mg/l, in the European Union - 100 mg/l for organic wines and 150 mg/l for all others. For sweet versions, the limits are slightly higher.

As a rule, red wines contain less sulfur than whites, dry wines have less sulfur than sweet ones, and high acid wines have less sulfur than low acid varieties.

Who is bigger

In ordinary life, we meet with sulfur much more often than we think. It is part of the essential amino acids for the human body, found in food and drinks. For skeptics, here are a few figures indicating that there is not so much sulfur in wine. For comparison, dried fruits contain 10-50 times more sulfur dioxide than wines. Details on the picture:

Caution: Allergy

The link between the presence of sulfites in wine and subsequent headaches has not been scientifically proven. What's more, the statistics rather refute this theory: people are more likely to complain of headaches from red wines, which contain less sulfur than whites.

But an allergy to sulfur compounds does occur in a small percentage of people. By the way, to confirm the diagnosis, the patient is asked to eat some raisins or other dried fruits, since they contain the most sulfur-containing substances. Sulfites pose the greatest danger to people with two diagnoses at the same time - an allergy to sulfites and asthma. Fortunately, this combination is extremely rare (less than 1% of people).

Quality above all

As practice shows, in most cases in the morning the head hurts either from too much alcohol, or from low-quality drinks, or from both. So choose your wine wisely and don't overdo it.

And for those who are still afraid of sulfites, it is worth recalling that not all wines without their addition are more "natural" and of high quality. At the same time, some biodynamists, on the contrary, believe that a certain amount of sulfur of organic origin will not harm the wine. In a small concentration, sulfites can be contained in absolutely any wine, even if they were not specially added there, since they are a by-product of fermentation.

Those naturalist vintners who seek to use little or no sulfur usually do so not for health reasons, but for the sake of better expressing a particular vintage and terroir (climate and soil characteristics of the area). Read more about biodynamics and organics.