Sunderland man's Italian wines even finer
City businessman Andrea D'Ercole is helping allergy sufferers keep a clear head.
Andrea's website Italyabroad.com has just started importing the UK's first completely sulphite-free wine.
"There are two sources of sulphites in wine," said Andrea.
"Sulphites are naturally produced during the fermentation of the wine or can be added to protect it from unwanted oxidations.
"Sulphur dioxide is considered to be harmless at the levels typically found in wine, but in the case of asthmatics or allergics, can create problems and cause headaches.
"The only way to reduce the natural sulphites is to carefully select the grapes and the yeast and limit the contact of the wine with oxygen during the fermentation.
"This is a very time-consuming process and only small producers can do it."
One of the main problems for sulphite-free wine is conservation and Andrea was unsure whether his new product would survive the trip to the North East.
Having established that it could handle the trip, the next question was how long it would last when opened.
"We wanted to make sure the wine would last a few days," he said. "We left half a bottle and tasted it the following day and the wine was still fine.
"We were very pleased with the results and only now is the wine is on sale."
Andrea moved to the UK in 2001 and set up italyabroad.com after spotting a gap in the market for quality Italian food and wines at an affordable price.
Italyabroad.com has been featured in several specialised magazines, including Decanter, which named the firm's Barolo best value in 2004 among 202 wine brands.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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