Introduction

Rakhal · Sep 16, 2022

Hi I’m Rakhal. I make wine in France and in California. I prefer to make wine with minimal intervention. I use native yeast fermentation and so far I’ve never used sulfites. I came on this forum to get advice on how to add minimal sulfites at bottling. Just enough to keep it stable for aging and traveling.

Ohio Bob · Sep 16, 2022

This seems to be a hot topic(s), you can search to find a lot of different opinions. To insure stability and yet at the same time minimize sulfite addition I suggest you invest $$ in a meter that measures SO2.

Undoubtedly the first question many of us have is why don’t you want to use sulphites?

Rakhal · Sep 16, 2022

Ohio Bob said:
This seems to be a hot topic(s), you can search to find a lot of different opinions. To insure stability and yet at the same time minimize sulfite addition I suggest you invest $$ in a meter that measures SO2.

Undoubtedly the first question many of us have is why don’t you want to use sulphites?

Thanks for responding! I actually do want to use sulfites which is what I’m trying to get advice on. The reason I normally don’t use sulfites is because I’ve always been very happy with my results without using them so I don’t see the point. Also I’m very interested in tasting what a certain vineyard tastes like and to me that means relying solely on the native yeasts present on those grapes. Killing the native yeasts and inoculating the grapes with a laboratory strain makes the resulting wine less interesting to me. Adding sulfites just before bottling makes more sense to me. An SO2 meter is a great suggestion! Thanks!

Ohio Bob · Sep 16, 2022

Lots of opinions to search on both topics. Native yeasts are more than likely related to the area the grapes were grown, not the varietal. So Merlot in France and Merlot in California might have totally different native yeasts. Do the research before deciding.

Rakhal · Sep 16, 2022

Ohio Bob said:
Lots of opinions to search on both topics. Native yeasts are more than likely related to the area the grapes were grown, not the varietal. So Merlot in France and Merlot in California might have totally different native yeasts. Do the research before deciding.

That’s exactly what makes it so interesting to me!! I want to taste that difference, not try to make them taste the same. Even different vineyards of the same grapes in the same area can have different native yeasts which result in different tasting wine. That variation is exactly what I love about wine.

winemaker81 · Sep 16, 2022

As I mentioned in your other thread, SO2 management can be started post-fermentation, so that you are not negatively affecting the local yeast.

Food for thought -- the rule of thumb that has propagated for years is that K-meta dosage is 1/4 tsp for 5 to 6 gallons of wine. Nope, I have no idea where this came from, but it's been the rule as long as I've been making wine.

Last year one of our members conducted a test, and his results indicate that following a K-meta addition, the free SO2 was roughly ~30 ppm, which is a target value, e.g., the rule of thumb produced the desired result. My take on this is that 1/4 tsp rule came about from many years of practical experience.

Keep in mind that free SO2 is affected by many things, including pH and the level of contaminants in the wine, and there are probably other factors. Trying to fine tune the SO2 level is trying to hit a moving target, whereas using the shotgun approach (1/4 tsp at each racking and at bottling time) produces the same result.

A question to ask prior to performing each winemaking action is, "what am I getting from this?" If you believe you are getting value, then do it.