Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/74662
WINEMAKING pean Union to identify consumer attitudes about organic wine. Most respondents worried about the health risks of sulfites, prompting the researchers to recommend that any proposed EU organic wine regula- tions require low maximum sulfite levels to appeal to health-conscious consumers. Before U.S. law required winemakers to list sulfites, most consumers paid them little mind. The law (which required that any wines with a minimum 10 parts per million of total sulfur dioxide declare the presence of sulfites on the label) went into effect in 1987 and gave producers a year to comply. But the diverse nature of the wine market meant that wines destined for stores by the deadline—and thus re- quired to carry the label—wound up next to unlabeled Bordeaux and other premi- um vintage wines bottled years before the rule went into effect. Naturally, consum- ers (incorrectly) concluded that one bottle contained sulfites and the others didn't. Concerns about sulfite safety first emerged in the early 1980s, when the FDA first noted a spike in consumer complaints describing adverse reactions to the additive. Most of the complaints cited salad bars and fresh fruits and vegetables. In response, the FDA contacted the Fed- eration of American Societies for Experi- mental Biology, an independent scientific body, to evaluate sulfite safety. In 1985, when reports of adverse reactions peaked at 500 (including 13 deaths), FASEB con- cluded that, "Although sulfites are safe for most people, the additives pose a hazard of unpredictable severity to asthmatics and other sensitive people." But the words "contains sulfites" loom for the average consumer, unaware of the label's intended audience: the sensitive few. And the sensitive few, researchers now know, typically have severe asthma. Of the estimated 22 million Americans who have asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion, about 20% have severe asthma. Of that subgroup, about 5%—or 220,000 Americans—are sulfite sensitive. For sensitive individuals, an inadver- tent encounter with sulfites might trigger anything from itchy hives and wheezing to shortness of breath and severe chest constriction. Only rarely has ingesting sulfites resulted in death—attributed to complications from asthma—but never from drinking wine. Just as there's no doubt that sulfites pose a real and potentially serious risk to these sensitive individuals, there's no evidence that most people have anything to worry about. "You'll read in a lot of important books that sulfites have been used since antiquity, but there's no evidence for that." —Paul Frey, Frey Vineyards A storied past No one knows precisely when winemak- ers first discovered the means to preserve the fermented fruits of their labor, but ancient texts and archeological evidence suggest a very early appreciation of sul- fur's disinfectant properties. And though it's often repeated that the Egyptians and Romans sanitized wine vessels with the fumes of burning sulfur candles, the evi- dence for this claim appears unsupported. In his 1966 study of ancient wine, William Younger argues that Romans did not use sulfites. Longtime organic wine producer Paul Frey has scoured ancient and modern works for proof that early winemakers burned sulfur and insists that none exists. "You'll read in a lot of im- portant books that sulfites have been used since antiquity, but there's no evidence for that," says Frey, head winemaker at Mendocino's Frey Vineyards. Renaissance winemakers, however, likely burned sulfur before a German royal decree legalized the practice in 1487. In The Story of Wine, Hugh Johnson calls the directive the first document to outline the method, amount and reasons to add sulfur. Winemakers were permitted a maximum level of 18.8mg per liter (or 18.8 parts per million)—barely above the 10ppm that requires the label today—by burning a mixture of wood shavings, powdered sulfur, incense and herbs in empty barrels. Unfortunately, fumigating barrels could over-sulfur the wines and produce that malodorous spawn of sulfur and fermenting grape juice, hydrogen sulfide. Advances in sulfur chemistry facilitated the synthesis of derivative forms of sulfur (such as potassium metabisulfite). When food-grade sulfiting agents became com- mercially available, winemakers, liberated from the unwieldy issue of the sulfur wick, gained far more control over this QSEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTHS #1019 AND #2311 54 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2011 3_winesandvines TR.indd 1 3-12-2010 12:49:33