The amount of sulfite in sulfite free wine is roughly 1/6 to 1/8 of the amount compared to a regular $25.00 bottle of wine. Some people believe that they are allergic to sulfites, and want to leave them out of their wines. While this is their option, it’s a bad idea. True sulfite allergies are extremely rare, and if someone has a reaction to drinking wine, it’s almost always due to some other cause. Besides, yeast make sulfites themselves during fermentation, so no wine can ever be sulfite-free, no matter what.
Without the sulfites, the wine will oxidize and spoil very rapidly. It will probably start to go bad in less than 4 weeks, and be undrinkable in less than three months. Also, if the sulfite is left out, but the sorbate is added, the wine could be attacked by malolactic bacteria, which will convert the sorbate into the compound hexadienol, which smells like rotting geraniums and dead fish. Vina Cuesta Colora is an organic sulfite free wine available at La Vinotheque of Farmington.
