Does white wine have gluten in it?

dgshelton · Post by **dgshelton** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:13 pm

I made some sautéed chicken tonight and now I have the dreaded D. I made a white wine "cream" sauce using coconut milk and a little corn starch to thicken it. I don't know where I could have gotten the gluten, unless it was from the wine. It was a great bottle of French Chardonnay that my husband got for Christmas last year. Neither one of us drink white wine, so I thought it would be excellent to use for cooking. I didn't even think about it having gluten in it!

Hugs,

MBombardier · Post by **MBombardier** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:47 pm

No gluten in white wine. I drink white wine or zinfandel fairly often. I would suspect something else.

Post by **tex** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 9:28 pm

Denise,

You may be sensitive to the sulphites in wine. We have our own wine expert, but she hasn't posted recently, so I don't know if she will see this thread or not. I'm no expert, but I believe that white wines typically have a higher natural sulfite content than red wine.

I can eat a few red grapes, but it doesn't take very many white grapes to give me D, so I assume that I'm sensitive to sulfites.

There are certain wines that are considered to be naturally low in sulfites, but I don't know enough about them to advise anyone about which ones to consider.

Hugs,
Tex

dgshelton · Post by **dgshelton** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:05 pm

Tex - The label on the bottle says that it contains sulphites. What are sulphites?

Hugs,

MaggieRedwings · Post by **MaggieRedwings** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 5:51 am

White wine is definitely gluten free to that I am sure. I could not live without it. Perhaps the cornstarch may have contained flour as an additive to keep it from caking?

Maggie

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:47 am

Denise,

I'm sure you've already done a major decontamination of cutting boards, wooden spoons, countertops, pots, pans... but if one of those was one you hadn't used for a while, is it possible there was a ghost of gluten past haunting you?

I hope the D episode is brief and mild - you've been doing so well...

Come to think of it, I may have had some gluten ghosts in my early weeks of getting my kitchen together. Hm...

Post by **tex** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:41 am

Denise,

I'm not sure if "sulphites" is a legal spelling or not - the usually spelling is "sulfites", but I get it mixed up about half the time.

Anyway, sulfites are a very common food "allergen", but very few people test positive to sulfites in a skin test, (which is the test for true IgE-mediated allergy), so most people's reaction to them is obviously not a true allergy. People with asthma, and people who are sensitive to salicylates, (NSAIDs), are more likely to react to sulfites.

Without the presence of sulfur, grape juice would just turn into vinegar, rather than wine. Sulfites occur naturally in all wines to some degree, and they're also commonly added to stop the fermentation process at an optimum time. In addition to that, sulfites are sometimes added to wine as a preservative, to prevent oxidation and/or spoilage. In most developed countries, current law states that wines that contain more than 10 parts per million, (ppm), of sulfites, must declare the presence of sulfites on the label. And, of course, sulfites are commonly used as a preservative in dried fruits, and similar products.

Tex

dgshelton · Post by **dgshelton** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:04 am

Tex- I read some stuff on the internet last night about some wineries using gluten in the paste they use to seal the cork on the barrels the wine is made in. They use to use some kind of glue made from cows, but because of mad cow disease they had to switch to something else. I'm not so sure it they use the gluten paste here, but the wine was from a French winery. Have you heard anything about that?

Hugs,

ant · Post by **ant** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:12 am

using coconut milk

Of course, I want to find any excuse not to exclude wine.

But, perhaps the coconut milk had the legume guar gum added as a thickener?

Best, ant

dgshelton · Post by **dgshelton** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:13 am

Sara - I used a brand new wooden spoon. The only thing that I didn't think about is that maybe I contaminated the starch. I've had it a while and when cooking, it's really easy to use the same measuring spoon to measure out the flour and then stick it in the cornstarch. I probably need to throw away that cornstarch and get a new container. The D came on pretty fast. My stomach was churning before I finished eating. I drank red wine the other night and didn't have any problems, so I really don't think it was the sulfites.

Hugs,

dgshelton · Post by **dgshelton** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:16 am

Ant - I used the same coconut milk to fry zucchini and didn't have any problems. I think I may have figured out that the cornstarch was contaminated.

Hugs,

Post by **tex** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:39 am

Denise wrote:Tex- I read some stuff on the internet last night about some wineries using gluten in the paste they use to seal the cork on the barrels the wine is made in. They use to use some kind of glue made from cows, but because of mad cow disease they had to switch to something else. I'm not so sure it they use the gluten paste here, but the wine was from a French winery. Have you heard anything about that?

I have a hunch that someone is trying to spread unfounded rumors. There are all sorts of blogs about adhesives used in barrels, most of which are made by individuals who might or might not have good intentions, but they definitely do not have their facts straight. Wheat-based adhesives will dissolve in virtually any liquid, (certainly in alcohol and in water), and it would therefore break down, and leach into the wine. No wine-maker worth their salt, is going to do anything to rock to the boat by changing their processes in any way that might wreck their reputation.

FYI, there are no adhesives used in barrels/casks used in wine making, because of what I just said - no one wants to risk spoiling a fine wine. Furthermore, no adhesives are necessary, because properly constructed barrels never need an adhesive - they are leak-free by virtue of their design and construction, and that has been true since wooden barrels/casks were first invented. Why would they suddenly become leaky now?

Blogs are probably a good thing, (and many of them contain valid information), but in so many cases, they tend to convert wannabes into overnight experts on virtually any topic. The problem is, so many of them never check their facts - they copy the information from some other "arm chair expert", and the information is posted in so many places, that eventually everyone just assumes that it is factual, despite the fact that the original blogger was "full of baloney".

Hugs,
Tex

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:48 am

Makes sense to me - and if anyone is foolishly messing with a known way to make wine glorious, I'm betting it's not the French!

Hope you find your culprit, Denise - and more importantly, hope it doesn't happen again,

Sara

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 4:19 pm

Sara
i can attest to your statement, this time last year i was in france for work. I had no issues drinking champagne or red wine whilst in france.
back in australia i wasnt tolerating 'australian sparkling' at all (we are not allowed to call it champagne)

I have some preservative free, no added sulphur dioxde** red wines to try when i am feeling well.
I have been quite poorly the past month so there has been no scope for trying new things.

** Tex, in Australia we spell it Sulphites.

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 4:24 pm

Gabes, I'm sorry you're not feeling great. I missed your regular comments and was hoping you were too busy feeling great to spsend as much time here as sometimes in the past...

Wishing you a speedy recovery. I'll be preparing my French chef cards this week (a friend has agreed to proofread, not just for grammar, but for graciousness... my high school french was long ago). I'm so grateful for the preparation you did for your own trip.

I'll be thinking of you,

Sara