Many of us in the industry of serving people wine could tell you that the public is generally misinformed about wine related allergies. And who’s to blame them? There isn’t exactly a ton of information available. There seems to be a lot of finger-pointing at suphites. “I can’t drink red wine because I’m allergic to sulphites” was what someone told me recently. “Well actually, there’s generally significantly higher levels of sulphites added to white wine to keep it fresh, as it doesn’t have the antioxidant qualities of…er, ahh nevermind, I’ll be right back with that glass of Riesling.” Here’s a table of permitted SO2 levels in the EU if you’re curious.

A new article from 24 Medica talks a little bit about allergies to wine, although it doesn’t nearly go into the level of detail I’d like it to. Plus it fails to differentiate between wine made from organically grown grapes and wine produced completely organically. It may be farmed without pesticides, but maybe your body doesn’t like ingesting small amounts of the poison known as Velcorin that some people decide to put into your wine. Think of that?

I’m thankful that I don’t have negative reactions to wine, yet I would like to experiment and try and narrow it down with someone who does. What happens if you drink a naturally made wine - free of any synthetic chemicals, designer yeast, and nearly devoid of SO2 (low levels of sulphur dioxide are naturally occurring in wine)? What happens when you drink a bottle of Marcel Lapierre’s Morgon? What happens when you eat packaged fruit salad (often a major source of SO2)? Maybe it’s the histamines naturally found in all red wine. How about acetaldehyde and alcohol flush reaction?

Perhaps you manage to narrow the culprit down and it IS something that was added and not naturally occurring. Until they print ingredient lists on wine bottles, you’ll need to do your research or have a relationship with a retailer who knows their stuff before buying your next bottle of irritation-free wine.

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