If you’ve ever had a wine headache and blamed the sulphites, you’re in good company. It’s one of the most repeated claims in wine — and one of the least accurate.
Those two words on the back of the bottle, contains sulphites, certainly sound like a warning, but they’re really just a legal labelling requirement. Sulphites are an absolutely normal part of winemaking, used for centuries to keep wine fresh and stable from the winery to your glass – and they’re definitely not the villain they’re made out to be.
What are sulphites in wine?
Sulphites (technically sulphur dioxide, or SO2) are sulphur-based compounds that occur naturally during fermentation. Most winemakers generally add a small amount of SO2 to what’s already there – because sulphites actually do have a useful job: they preserve freshness, protect aromas and stop the wine from spoiling. Without them, a lot of wines simply wouldn’t make it to the shelf in good condition.
And here’s the thing that helps to put it all in perspective: a handful of dried apricots contains roughly ten times the sulphite levels of a glass of wine. Sulphites are also in bread, fruit juice, prawns, and plenty of other everyday foods. If you happily eat dried fruit without a second thought, sulphites in wine are very unlikely to be causing your headache problems.
Do sulphites cause wine headaches?
There is a small group of people who are genuinely sensitive to sulphites. Around 3 to 10 per cent of asthma sufferers may react to them. That’s real, and worth knowing about. But sulphite sensitivity typically shows up as breathing difficulty or flushing, not headaches. The two things get confused constantly.
There’s also the simple fact that most people don’t realise: white wine generally contains more sulphites than red wine. If sulphites were really behind wine headaches, white wine should be the bigger problem. But ask anyone who gets wine headaches which colour sets them off, and they’ll almost always say red. That tells you something.
What’s actually behind a wine headache
If you’ve ever wondered why wine gives you a headache when other drinks don’t, there are more likely explanations than sulphites. Alcohol itself is the obvious one: it dehydrates you, affects your blood vessels, and hits harder when you drink quickly or on an empty stomach.
Some people are also sensitive to histamines and tannins, both naturally present in wine, particularly reds. And then there’s the stuff nobody wants to hear: how much you drank, how fast, whether you’d eaten properly, whether you were already dehydrated before you started. Wine headaches are rarely about one ingredient. They’re usually about a combination of triggers.
No added sulphites and what that actually means
You’ll sometimes see wines labelled “no added sulphites.” It’s worth knowing that this doesn’t mean sulphite free. Because sulphites form naturally during fermentation, no wine is ever truly free of them. The label just means the winemaker didn’t add any extra SO2. These wines suit people who prefer a lower-intervention style, but they can be less stable and more unpredictable from bottle to bottle.
When it’s worth taking seriously
If you have asthma or a known sulphite sensitivity, or if you regularly experience wheezing, chest tightness or flushing after wine, speak to your GP. That’s a different situation entirely. But if your main issue is headaches, the answer is almost certainly not on the label — it’s in how much you drank, what you ate, and how hydrated you were.
Sulphites have been part of winemaking for longer than most of us realise, they’re in far more foods than wine, and for the vast majority of people they’re completely harmless. Don’t fear the label. Just pay attention to what’s actually in the glass — and maybe have a glass of water alongside it.
Want to understand more about what goes into your wine and why? Our wine tasting courses cover this and much more: expert-led, no jargon, and plenty of wine to taste along the way.
