In response to you, and in response to “Roger, Gone Green”’s inaccurate reply to that post, my answer is: “No. Real wine has sulfites in it.” Sulfites have been a standard part of the wine making process for millennia. Sulfites are part of the essential flavor profile of wine. Claiming that “real wine shouldn’t have sulfites” is akin to claiming “real beer shouldn’t have hops” Or that “real” beer would be the undrinkable swill that the ancient Egyptians imbibed.

Now, this doesn’t meant that those who are allergic to sulfites should not try to find yummy sulfite-free wines, or that wine without sulfites is necessarily undrinkable. But Roger’s assertion that the problem of wine spoilage is a “modern expectation” is, simply, fabricated. Many of the flavors we (and by “we” I mean “everyone who has drunk wine since the ancient Greeks and Romans”) seek in wine develop only as the wine matures. If the wine turns in to vinegar before it matures, we are deprived of that. This is why we have been putting sulfites in wine for thousands of years, and why we will continue to do so for thousands more.

When the ancient Romans wanted some red wine vinegar, they were perfectly capable of _making vinegar on purpose_, and didn’t have to accidentally sacrifice an amphora of precious red Falernian. The fact that such a sacrifice might not be a total loss because the vinegar was “useful” would not make it any less of a fuck-up. Ruining potentially good wine (intended for maturation) by deciding to not put the appropriate amount of preservatives in it is a fuck-up.