Today, the use of sulfur dioxide (SO2) is widely accepted as a useful winemaking aide. It is used as a preservative because of its anti-oxidative and anti-microbial properties in wine, but also as a cleaning agent for barrels and winery facilities.
If you have a reaction to red wine, but not white, then your problem is probably not a sulfite allergy. In most cases, there are more sulfites in white wine than in red.
Wine from long habit has become indispensable for my health.” Thomas Jefferson also declared that “good wine was necessary to life.”
Recent evidence has suggested that moderate consumption of red wine results in a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease. This is attributed to the antioxidant effect of the polyphenolic compounds in red wines.
