Is it possible to find sulphite-free wine in the UK?

Are sulphites bad for your health? What are they? And finally: are there wines completely without sulphites? In our article about sulfine-free wine in the UK today we will go deeper into these questions and answer them.

Sulphites: what are them?

Even if a bottle of wine is closed with the cork, this does not mean that the air does not come into contact with the liquid inside, risking to cause oxidation. Preventing this from happening is one of the main reasons why sulphites, which are sulfur and oxygen based additives, are added to wine during production. Not only that: we find sulphites in many foods with the function of preservatives, in particular in prawns, in dehydrated potatoes, in fruit, in sugar and generally in packaged foods. And of course, as mentioned above, in wine.
The most common sulphites with which we come into contact with food and wine are sulfur dioxide, potassium bisulfite and sodium bisulfite.

What is the problem with sulphites

But then, if they are present in a large number of foods that we ingest perhaps daily, why are they considered a problem? On the one hand, it is a question of health, because sulphites are classified as allergens: fortunately, the possibility of causing allergic reactions is quite rare, however taking risks is not a good solution, don’t you think?
On the other hand, we enter the querelle of natural wine: wine produced according to traditional techniques produces by itself a small amount of sulphites. However, as more and more often happens, industrial wine production has trodden on the use of sulfites as preservatives, using them as additives. The natural wine movement rejects these methods, wanting to return to more genuine and healthy production methods, which do not see additives as a shortcut to the quality of the final product.

Is there sulphite-free wine in the UK?

Now let’s go back to the main question of the article: is it possible to buy wine without sulphites in the UK or anywhere in the world? If you have read carefully above you will have noticed a detail: the winemaking itself produces these preservatives, so the answer is that a wine completely free of sulphites does not exist. However, the amount of sulphites present in a naturally produced wine will be lower compared to wines produced with industrial methods that do not skimp on the addition of additives.
More than a wine without sulphites, it will, therefore, be good to look for a wine with no added sulphites: this is where the good wines from natural, organic and biodynamic production methods come into play. Fortunately, the presence of added sulphites must be declared on the label, and wine can be defined sulphite-free if it contains less than 10 mg / l of sulfur dioxide. However, the European legislation on the matter makes things less easy than expected, since it allows the addition of other additives without having to declare it.

After reading all this, it is the moment to join the natural wine revolution and taste the wines without added sulphites in the UK available in our shop: try them now!