Some people see red when they hear someone say “added yeast”. But that does not prevent most wine producers from choosing cultivated (selected) yeast over wild yeast. There are over 200 varieties of Saccharomyces cerevisiae on the French market. Every year, new yeast strains are launched. And every year the Institut Français de la Vigne […]
A few years ago, we wrote in the Brief about the South African wine producer KWV who had made a wine called Earth’s Essence without added sulphur. Instead, they had used the rooibos plant, known for its antioxidant properties. Continued research in South Africa has now shown that the South African tea plant honeybush also […]
Sulphur is something that is naturally present in our environment and it is a product that is allowed for all wine producers – organic as well as conventional – both to combat fungal diseases in the vineyard and as an antioxidant in the finished wine. However, there is a certain demand from organic producers for […]
Natural wines are fashionable at the moment and there is a lot of talk about the difficulty of making wine without adding sulphur. But what if it’s not that hard? Since a few years’ back there is something called bio protection. It means that by adding special yeasts for the fermentation the wine makers can […]
“When making organic wine you use no additives and you don’t spray toxins in the vineyard”. Just a little bit exaggerated (but only slightly) this is what one can both hear said and read sometimes. But it is completely wrong. Organic wine producers both spray their vines and use processing aids (“additives”) in the wine […]
A while back BKWine Magazine published a text on the wine from South Africa where they refrained from using sulphur and instead used rooibos, a South African wood species. BKWine Magazine’s reporter Mikael Karlin became curious and decided to try the wine. I was curious about the wine “Earth’s Essence”, which consists of 100% Pinotage […]
How much sulphur to put in the wine is much discussed today. You can do without it, say some natural wine enthusiasts. Absolutely impossible to do without, say others. Most people use sulphur to some extent, to protect the wine from oxidation and against impure flavours. But sulphur is also found in wine naturally. It […]
Is it possible to replace the antioxidant and anti-bacterial properties of sulphur with a preservative made from grape seeds? Yes, that is the idea of Intergrapes in Italy after seven years of study. They claim that the preservative is as effective as sulphur and that the wine better retains its natural flavours. Moreover, says Intergrapes, […]
In our March Brief we wrote that the habit of burning sulphur inside oak barrels to disinfect them is in danger of being banned. Because sulphur tablets are classified as biocides you need an authorization to be allowed to sell them. And this authorization is expensive. Now things look a bit brighter, according to La […]
The use of sulphur to be banned? To disinfect oak barrels by burning sulphur inside is a century old tradition. Now the procedure could become illegal. According to the EU rules sulphur tablets is classified as biocides, which means that they must have obtained an authorization to be allowed on the market. And to get […]
Some say that the headache you get from wine is due to the sulphur the wine contains rather than to the volume consumed. Apparently you can actually be allergic to sulphur but we tend to believe that the headache mostly is due to the volume issue. But if you don’t think it is there is […]
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