March 02, 2010

Brimstone in the bottle: sulfur compounds in wine

The word "sulfur", in my mind, is inexorably linked back to Mr. Burcik's high school chemistry class, when we were given soft, pungent, yellow chunks to mix with other chemicals. When elemental sulfur is exposed to air, it forms sulfur dioxide, which burns the inside of the nose and stinks up the whole chemistry wing of the building.