[Article by Alexander Eeckhout]
The latest in wine and health innovations is called Üllo. “A revolutionary product that restores wine to its natural, preservative-free state.” To me the name reminds me of being lost in Ikea on a sunday afternoon. Yet what’s in a name? Let’s look at the product.

Üllo is a wine purification product, a filter that separates wine from sulfites. Sulfites are chemicals used to preserve wine. Since wine is a volatile product it can go bad easily in a number of ways. Sulfites make sure that the wine, when bottled, is still the same when you open it.

Üllo filters those preservatives out. The product was launched on Kickstarter and is available for pre-order on Indiegogo for the affordable price of sixty dollars. A low price to pay to remove those horrible allergy causing, respiratory disease inflicting and hangover inducing sulfites.

Üllo also aerates your wine but if you wish not to you can adjust it so the wine doesn’t aerate. Although I doubt it won’t be aerated when the wine comes pouring out of the device in a decanter.

Do we really need to get rid of sulfites? Strangely, on its website, Üllo doesn’t give any reasons why we should. On their Indiegogo page it claims that “it’s estimated that three million americans are sensitive to sulfites resulting in allergies or respiratory problems  while countless others blame these chemicals for headaches and hangovers.”

A little research shows that sulfites are present in a lot of  processed food and in much higher quantities. Those who are sulfite sensitive should avoid those foods more than wine. You’re going to want to cut down on fries, sodas and (packaged) meat too if you’re going to filter the sulfites out of your wine. The headaches and hangovers, on the other hand, are not at all caused by sulfites. I guess that’s why they had to use the word “blame”.