Sulphite-Free Wines at RAW, The UK's Biggest Independent Wine Fair
If you enjoy a glass or two of wine but suffer from a sensitivity to sulphites, find your hangover starts before the night ends, you're sneezing for no reason and you wake up with an inflamed face and the beginnings of an acne breakout, help is at hand.
RAW, the UK's biggest independent wine fair brings together a wide range of producers showcasing a fantastic selection of wines including many that are sulphite-free.
For some people a glass of wine is followed by a multitude of symptoms, due to sulphite sensitivity. Ranging from shortness of breath to a premature hangover, sulphites in wine cause misery for those who are unable to tolerate these added preservatives.
So when we discovered a large collection of producers showcasing sulphite-free wines at this year's RAW Fair, we sampled a wide variety and are pleased to say that none produced the tell-tale symptoms we are used to seeing after drinking 'regular' wine.
Some of our favourites include: -
Vinyer de la Ruca Banyuls 2011, AOC: This pleasantly surprising young wine is made without the aid of machinery or fertiliser. Grapes from a wild vineyard are still crushed under foot to produce this two year aged wine, that is presented in handmade bottles created by a Catalan glass-blower.
François Saint-Lô Produced in a old, renovated cellar, working with a press that hadn't been used for 25 years, combined with a difficult vintage due to heavy rainfall, it is more than a little surprising to find this young man has produced three varieties of very good 2012 table wine. The Grolleau is thirst quenching, light and fruity - the Cabernet Franc, refined in oak, deeper in taste, full of fruit - and the Chenin is "quietly finishing fermentation", producing a sharp but clean taste.
Château du Perron / Le Grand Cléré Offering a selection of six sulphite-free wines produced in a purely organic manner, with flavours ranging from a champagne to a light beer, this was one of our favourites for their Grand Cléré (sauvignon Blanc) 2010, Vin de Table and Boisson Sauvage (bière Blonde) NV.
Domaines Lupier Enrique Basarte and Elisa Úcar have a great passion for vines, soil and wine, for those indescribable wines that are a joy to the senses and constitute one of the true pleasures of life.
Radikon presented four sulphite-free wines at RAW from their 10ha vineyard, that grows on steep slopes and has been run by Stanislao Radikon since 1980, together with his wife Suzana and son, Saša.
Costadilà is a small, traditional, organic, "closed-loop" farm located in the hills north of Venice, whose wines are only fermented in bottle, using wild-yeasts and never adding sulphites. They produce honest, easy-drinking sparkling wines.
Olivier Cousin promotes the use of animal traction and transport by sail. His seven hectare family farm is cultivated using biodynamics and ploughed by horse. At RAW he presented a very nice selection of three sulphite-free Vin de Table.
Strohmeier's motivating principle is to "let everything develop on its own". Going organic in 2003 and encouraging life in all its forms, from the smallest protozoan to highly-developed plants and animals, in order to find the right balance has allowed Stohmeire to produce a strong collection of varied wines with individual outstanding flavours.
Weingut Karl Schnabel offered five wines in their collection, from their family-run, organic winery.
This year also saw the launch of an exciting new project: The Collective
This is a structure that has been set up by Isabelle Legeron MW and Hungarian friends to help growers who would like to start making natural wine but need support.
The Collective works solely with organic growers who commit to making a natural cuvée, and commits to buy the wine, come what may.
We sampled the collection of sulphite-free wines and would be excited to see these made more readily available - as long as no sulphites were added at a later stage.
RAW is a two-day celebration of some of the best wine talent in the world. Featuring over 150 growers, RAW is one of the most exciting collections of fine, natural wine artisans ever to come together in the capital.
Their wines are pure, kind to the planet, very possibly better for your health and best of all they are absolutely delicious.
If you are looking to discover wines from all over the world, including sulphite-free then save the date for RAW 2014. www.rawfair.com