Julien Fayard, one of Napa Valley’s most sought-after winemaking consultants, is running an experiment with $250 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon. He’s forgoing sulfur, a move that most of his wealthy clients and customers would consider sacrilegious.
Sulfur dioxide is widely considered one of the most essential ingredients in wine. Sulfur is a natural byproduct of the fermentation process, but most winemakers add more to protect the wine from oxidation and keep it shelf-stable. It preserves freshness and fruit flavors, and prevents wine from turning brown, turning into vinegar, or spoiling due to the growth of bacteria and yeast. For high-end, collectible wines like Fayard’s, sulfur helps them age gracefully in the cellar. Abstaining seems counterintuitive.
Sulfite-free wines exist, but they’re typically exclusive to the more extreme side of the natural wine spectrum, zero-zero wines, where winemakers eschew all additives. Natural wines’ often affordable pricing and drink-now attitude can offset the risk of instability, and many natural wine drinkers actually like a little funk or “nattiness.” (These days, thankfully, most natural winemakers draw the line at mousiness, nail polish aromas and chunks of sediment.) In high-end winemaking, however, opting out of sulfur comes with greater financial and reputational risk. Five years ago, Fayard decided to try it anyway with a top-tier Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon made from some of the most expensive fruit on the California grape market. “I told him, ‘No way, I’m not doing that. It’s too much money,’” Camille Gaïo, Fayard’s director of winemaking, said. “I told him he was crazy.”…