My wife has long suffered in silence from the ravages of wine headaches.  Ok, so maybe it wasn't really in silence, but the suffering was really there.  Her belief has long been that these headaches were due to added sulfites in the wine.  There are tons of posts on wine blogs about whether or not sulfites really can cause headaches, but there is an interesting article on Palate Press this week about whether or not sulfite additives are really necessary to make a good wine that will be drinkable for more than a day.

Sulfites occur naturally in wine, as well as in a number of other foods.  Two ounces of dried apricots contain 10 times the amount of sufites found in a glass of wine.  Sulfites work as a preservative in wine.  In addition to the naturally occurring amounts of sulfites, winemakers often add sulfites to help keep wine from spoiling quickly. 

I agree with Amy Atwood that I would prefer as little monkeying around with my wine as possible, but I don't have a problem with winemakers adding a small amount of sulfites to produce quality wines.  It's hard enough to make a good wine without handicapping winemakers further.  By the same token, I give props to any winemaker who can make a good wine without chucking in sulfites and other additives.

In regard to the sufite/headache question, regardless of whether or not sufites are actually responsible for the headaches or not, there are a lot of people who get headaches from red wine.  My wife has found that her headaches have been helped greatly by decanting for 20 or 30 minutes before drinking, which actually improves a lot of red wines anyway.