This week we’ve also (after tasting) picked up Our Daily Red and Orleans Hill Zinfandel. Honestly, these are the first reduced sulfite wines we’ve tasted that actually taste good, and both are from recent vintages (2008 and 2007 respectively), which is fairly crucial given that these wines are lacking in the preservative power of sulfur dioxide.
The Our Daily Red is generally a blend of Syrah and Carignan grapes from Fresno County, with about 30% Cabernet Sauvignon from Mendocino County. Both wines are produced by the Nevada County Wine Guild. Both these reds carry a California appellation, as well as USDA organic certifications and vegan friendly statements.
(We will likely try other reduced sulfite wines in the future, and make a decision on whether to stock them, but as most have a short shelf life, and the number of people requesting them is quite low, this puts a small retailer in quite a precarious position. If there is a brand you personally prefer, we can always special order it for you, just let us know which ones you like.)
The Our Daily Red claims “no sulfites detected” while the Orleans Hill zin claims “sulfite free”. What this basically means is that laboratory analyses sent to the BATF for regulatory purposes found no detectable sulfites in the parts per million range. Were they tested for sulfites in the parts per billion range, it is very likely that sulfites would be detected — even if they are not added by the winemaker, they are still naturally occuring during vinification. Of course, these wines certainly have fewer sulfites than most other wines. They consequently also must be consumed in their youth, as the role of adding sulfur dioxide to wine is to protect it from things like bacteria that could turn it into vinegar.
There is perhaps some misinformation regarding sulfites in general. They are more pervasive in life than you may realize, they aren’t the only thing in wine that may cause you a headache (the most fundamental constituent being, well, ethanol itself), and very few people actually have an allergic reaction to sulfites (but some who don’t may mistakenly blame them anyway).
Other items in wine that may or may not be responsible for headaches (there is still no scientific consensus, and the FDA is in no hurry to do pro-alcohol consumption research) include histamines, tyramines, prostaglandins, and the assortment of congeners that are formed in most alcohol fermentations (there is, for example, more methanol retained in red wine than in grain distilled spirits, since grains have no pectins, which yield the methanol).
Sometimes you may notice you are more likely to get a headache from an “unfiltered” wine than a filtered one. In wine or in “brown” spirits, it is to a large degree the congeners that add the flavors, but their dual nature as “impurities” will also cause headaches. Filtering a fermented beverage likewise has the dual nature of reducing impurities while simultaneously removing flavor, so it’s a trade off.
