Sulfer in Wine- Galafrey Wines Australian Wine

How do I pick a wine that has minimal sulphur?
I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you have an allergy to sulphur but on what I have said so far I would choose a less commercial, aged red from a cool climate area. Sound familiar!!
If I was sensitive to sulphur I would avoid any wines that was bottled recently especially new whites. Give them 3 months to settle. It is often these wines that have a high sulphur smell to them which may cause anyone to wheeze- including me!
Meanwhile sweet wines especially stickys are high in sulphur.
The Sulphur levels of all wines naturally declines over time.
What about French and Italian wine I hear they have less sulphur added?
The theory is that French and Italian wines have a low acid and therefore don't require as much sulphur additions.
What about people who are allergic to sulphur?
I was going to try an answer this one but my research has lead me to many answers and suggest you follow your doctor's advice on that one! I'd imagine if you are allergic to sulphur then you cannot drink any wine, not even organic or natural wine. Organic and natural wine still contains sulphur just smaller amounts.

Sulphites in wine cause headaches?
Medical research is not definitive on the relationship between sulphites and headaches. There are many other compounds in wine such as histamines and tannins that are more likely connected to the headache effect (not to mention alcohol!).
Another surprising fact is that wine contains about ten times less sulphite than most dried fruits, which can have levels up to 1000 ppm. So if you regularly eat dried fruit and do not have any adverse reaction you are probably not allergic to sulphites. I was at a festival once and the person swore black and blue they couldn't drink wine because of the sulphur. Meanwhile they polished of a packet of Twisties in front of me? Yeah right- no sulphur in twisties!!
Apart from the potential allergic reaction, many people are against sulphites, because they feel they are an unnatural addition when making wine. While that view is valid, it is important to remember that sulphites are also a natural by-product of the yeast metabolism during fermentation. So even if you do not add any additional SO2, your wine will still contain sulphites.
A better understanding of how sulphur dioxide breaks down and binds during winemaking, better winery hygiene, and more careful viticultural practices to ensure healthy grapes (i.e no rot) have all greatly helped to reduce the need for SO2 additions during winemaking. Today, there are many winemakers who refrain from adding any SO2 until after the fermentation is complete.
So how come I get headaches with some wines and not others?
Put your science cap on again! The headache experienced after consuming alcohol is generally related to your BAC (Blood alcohol content). Blood alcohol content is usually expressed as a percentage of alcohol (generally in the sense of ethanol) in the blood. For instance, a BAC of 0.10 means that 0.10% (one tenth of one precent) of a person's blood, by volume is alcohol.
The more wine you consume, the higher will be your BAC, the more the alcohol and acetaldehyde will irritate the tissues of your brain, and the more severe will be your headache.
Your BAC's related to the rate of alcohol consumption and it is particularly true when it get rapidly absorbed into the blood from the small intestine. The consumption of food, intake of medication, and even other non-alcoholic fluids, with wine slows down the amount of alcohol that gets into your blood stream and reduces the amount of work your liver has to do to break the alcohol down.
Guess if one uses the rules of science one must drink different bottles of wine under the same circumstances with in the same time frame to prove the hypnosis true?? Bit hard really??

Why sulphites are necessary?
There are really very few wines that are made without some use of SO2. This is because wine is perishable, prone to oxidation and the development of aldehyde off-odors. SO2, particularly for white wines, is important for freshness
So why doesn't everybody make preservative free wine?
I imagine this will become more and more relevant. Even here at Galafrey we are playing with how far we can push minimal winemaking ( less to no additions of anything) but the technology not really there yet and there is a lot of risk of the wine spoiling.

And at the end of the day what does it all mean?
Read the label! What you choose to drink is your choice. That's why region, size of winery, alc%, pH, acid all play a big part in what you are drinking......and you thought the wine industry was putting all that stuff on to confused you?