 Sulfites and wine. It's a hot topic. We're going to demystify sulfites and taste some bottles that have no sulfur added in this video. Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. We're still locked down here in Zagreb. That's why my hair is crazy and all over the place. It's going to get cut soon. I'm finally getting my hair cut, so I'm excited. Excuse the crazy hair. Let's get into the topic of today. We're going to talk about sulfites in wine. Something that's searched for a lot. People discuss, have arguments about. We're going to talk a little bit about it, and then I'm going to taste some wines that are made with no sulfur added, which is kind of cool. First of all, what you need to know when we talk about sulfites and wine. When we talk about sulfites and wine, it's really sulfur dioxide, or SO2. You have to know that it's impossible to have a totally sulfur free wine because sulfur dioxide is a byproduct, a natural byproduct of fermentation. SO2 is also a preservative, so it helps preserve. It's an antioxidant. It helps keep wines fresh. This isn't going to be a video about health and sulfur and wine and headaches because that's quite a contentious topic. I don't think there's any definitive research one way or the other about that. But I do want to clarify how sulfur is used in wine. The use of sulfites in wine can be traced back hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Some people say the Greeks knew about it. Some people say it was invented by the Romans. That's something that's up to debate. One thing that we do know for sure. In terms of wine making, it was first mentioned as a written use of wine making by the Germans back in the 15th century. In the USA, they allow around 350 milligrams per liter of sulfur to be used in wine. In Europe, I think it's around 210 for dry wines, for sweet wines. It's a lot more than that. With those numbers, a bottle of juice or sauerkraut or any other pickled vegetables can have as much sulfur as a bottle of wine. For those of you that are enjoying a package of dried fruits, those can have anywhere from 5 to 10 times the amount of sulfites than a bottle of wine. I talked about earlier how sulfur dioxide is a natural byproduct of fermentation. But sulfites can be added throughout the wine making process. They can be added to the grapes after they've been picked to protect them. They can be added to the grapes while they're being crushed. They can be added during different phases of fermentation. They can be added to stop malolactic fermentation during barrel maturation and of course before the wines are actually put into the bottle. Lately, with the whole natural wine trend, there's a lot of non-sulfur added wines on the market. I personally think that I'm not a winemaker, but I do see a lot of winemakers experimenting with the technique. I think that sometimes they take it on as a challenge. There are a lot of regions around the world that bottle and produce wines with no sulfur added. I mean, when you think about it, think of the Quavy Rinds in Georgia. I've seen some in Armenia. I think the mecca of kind of macerated natural wine production in Colio, Italy and the border of western Slovenia. You'll find a lot of wines there with no sulfur added. And then of course Italy and France, especially in Beaujolais and the Rhône, which we have in front of us. And I've also seen some made in America. I don't know where all the fad really, really kind of started, but some people attributed it actually to Beaujolais in France, which is cool, and the Rhône here, which we're going to taste some of these wines here today. I have a selection of wines from the Rhône. We actually have four from Château de la Jardine and Château de Pop, which is really cool. We're going to taste these. We have actually a Château de Pop made in traditional style with sulfites added. And then we have one that had no sulfur added during the entire process. We actually have the same thing too from Château de la Jardine from the village of Rastau. We have also this wine from Domain des Ferrand. They only add sulfur right before the wines are put into the bottle, which is really cool. Let's start out with this. This is a cool wine. I wanted to retaste it. I've had it open for three days. This is a brand new wine made by a young woman, Elodie Jean. She's the daughter of the owner of the estate Domain des Chansons. This is the Elodie Jean Côte de Rhône 2019. So it's fresh wine, 70% Syrah, 30% Grenache in Croncrete. No sulfur added at any point in time here. It's pitch black when you think about it. This is a darker wine. It's got a little more concentration than a normal Rhone wine. I'm excited to retaste this when we first opened it. I was actually quite impressed for her in this style. It's quite clean. What can happen if people don't use sulfur? The wines can sometimes have funny aromas. Mousiness is the common thing. It's almost tasted like a wet fur type of flavor during the finish and sometimes in the nose. This wine has none of that, especially after being open for three days. The Syrah really sticks out here. Black fruit, blackberry, pepper, some kind of meat. This wine is made from organically grown grapes, spontaneous fermentation, so it's quite a natural wine. You're going to find it in those type of bars. Hipster people call it glug glug wine, so to speak. More full bodied in style. Tannins are grippy, not overly big. Definitely you have the Syrahiness, this wildness, the stemmingness, this gaminess really stands out. This is definitely a raw wine. What I mean by a raw wine is when you have vegetables, like carrots, celery, potato, stuff you use in a soup. If you have that raw, it's going to taste a little bit different from after you boil it or make it in a soup. That's why I compare more wines that people are used to drinking. Those wines are finished. They'll be like the cooked vegetables. Raw wines are more like obviously the raw vegetables. A little bit sharper, some roughness around the edges still. I think this is very good. I have to give her a ton of credit. I'll be retasting it. We'll be scoring it on our upcoming article we have coming up. But I think I'm pretty much in this style like an 88-89 point type of wine. So let's see what the jardines taste like. So we're tasting the Château de la Jardine, the two chattens of the Pops. The tradition, which is made in obviously normal style. And then the Le Bleu, Le Pieu Bleu, I think, which is made without any sulfur added. The tradition, the regular Château de la Pops. It's so funny. To me, this doesn't taste like normal Château de la Pops. I think Cherine pointed it out that it kind of reminds of a Brunel de Montalcino, which I totally agree. Because for me on the nose, you get a lot of leathery notes, cedar notes. Instead of a ripe strawberry note that I'm used to in Grenache, I'm getting in this more of a sour cherry note. Full body round, you can definitely detect the oak, which makes the wine quite polished. It's so funny. I looked back at my notes. I actually tasted this last year at the printemps de Château de la Pops. I'm in kind of like the 91 point range. I think it's really good. The one with no sulfur is actually a little bit more interesting, I think. Pure blue. The pure blue. Oh, it sounds so good. Yes. The pure blue is actually one-third Grenache, one-third Morvedre, and one-third Syrah. And it has no oak, only agent stainless steel. What they do is because there's no sulfur added into the wines, they inject some carbon dioxide. So I just shake it up and you have a little bit of spritz come out. That kind of protects the wine. Since we talked about sulfur is a preservative of wine. I don't know what the actual measurement of sulfur is. And these sulfur-free wines you are going to get, you are going to see some levels of sulfur. I think I know France just did their natural wine certification. I can't remember what levels of sulfur that they allow. I think it's somewhere like under 100 milligrams per liter, I think. In really natural low sulfur wines, you'll see way even below that, you know, below 30, below 25 sometimes. So it'd be interesting to see what this is. In general, Shireen and I are a fan of producers using sulfur, even natural wines, am I right? Because we want the wines to be clean. We don't want them to have these off-er, almost these mousy flavors. Now the pure blue, very fruity. Like I talked again about that kind of raw vegetable, this is more of a pure fruit nose. Blackberry, blue fruit, black cherry, a little bit of pepper, maybe a little bit of stemminess. Shireen says some vegetables. I don't know if I get vegetables. Vegetables. No off-er, almost here. Chewy tans. Like I said, more of a raw style wine. This is going to definitely find its place in natural wine type bars. This wine is always changing. I've opened it, I've been tasting it for the last couple of hours. I still don't even know how to correctly assess this. What I can say it's clean, it's super well made. It's definitely a wine that, to me, I think it's going to be over a 90-point type wine. I don't think it can jump up humongous levels. I really like to see how these wines age. I think that would be really interesting. Once this puts on some tertiary notes, it might be a little bit more interesting. So let's now see how the rationale tastes. Whoa, and I'm back. New haircut, new location. Finally ended in Zagreb, so I was able to chop off the fro that I had going on. Actually, as the night went on, the Château de la Jardine pure blue Château de Papres got really nice, open with air, had some really floral notes. I headed up at about 92 points. I thought it was phenomenal wine. I'm just really interested to see how it age. Now we're going to taste the Rastau made in a traditional, made in the kind of conventional way and one made without sulfur. Rastau is a village in the Southern Rhone. It's a little bit northeast of Château de Papres. It only became a crew, an official AOC in 2010. So kind of brand new, same kind of varieties, Rhone varieties. I love the 2016 Château de la Jardine Rastau. Last year when we tasted it, I'm excited to taste the 2017. Both these wines are 75% Grenache, 25% Syrah. The first one is really just lovely. A pure strawberries rose petal. A little bit of mineral. Really nice. It's kind of in between the concentration. It smells like a big Château de Papres in a Cote d'Orone. I mean typically it's a Cote d'Orone village, right? So full body, super peppery, nice tannins. This is just as good as last year. I mean this is, I'll have to taste through the night but definitely for me a wine that's going to be kind of like a 90 plus point wine. Let's try the next one. This is the Château de la Jardine Rastau. This is the Mempapure. Let's see if I'm pronouncing that right. Which translates literally to not afraid. They're not afraid to not use Sulfur 2018. This has a little bit of CO2 to protect the wine. And once again, it's a little bit more raw. Like we talked about raw vegetables versus cooked vegetables. Both are good. It just depends on which one you like. I like salad. Shareen likes cooked vegetables. So let's give this a smell here. So just a little bit more raw. Kind of more violets, more stem, but still a lot of strawberry notes. Pepper, this one has more kind of like crushed rock type flavors. This one's got sweeter fruit. A little bit of just a slight mild tingly sensation. Why here it is when if you have these wines at home you gotta decant them and shake them up to get the CO2 out. I mean both are peppery wines. This one, the tradition, the rest is a little bit more a little more fuller in body. The mempapur sorry is a little bit more sweeter fruit. So both nice. Really cool that you can see the difference in wine making styles. And it's so happy for me to see all the wines we tasted were clean without Sulfur. No fault. So those wines out there do exist. My suggestion to you, if there's somebody that's Sulfite do concern you, look for these wines that have no Sulfur added. Ask somebody at your wine shop, but you also have to know the producer. Ask the wine store manager or the guy that's selling is the wine more like a traditional type of wine? Is it more like a conventional, like a normal type of wine or is it more of a raw natural type wine? Because those wines can be off-putting to some people. So check them out. I had a lot of fun tasting through all these types of wines. We enjoy both kinds. You have to stay tuned for our upcoming article on some of the Côte d'Orone cruise. So guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel, and I will see you at the next episode.