You may have seen the small label at the bottom of your wine bottle that reads “Contains Sulfite” and wondered, what is this? Is sulfite bad? Is that what’s giving me wicked wine hangovers?

There’s some debate about the health risks of sulfites (no, it’s probably not what’s giving you headaches), but for a certain segment of the population, sulfites are indeed harmful and prevent people from consuming wine. Those with asthma can have severe sulfite sensitivity, and others are just simply allergic to it.

To rid wine of sulfites, Chicago startup Üllo has launched a new device that removes the chemical without altering any of the wine’s other properties. Through a process called “selective sulfite capture,” the startup’s device is able to capture the sulfites, allowing everything else flows past unaffected. The product works as an attachment to your wine glass, or as a full-sized carafe or decanter, and it’s launching July 21 on Kickstarter to raise $100,000 to bring the device to market.

“There’s no other product out there that can remove sulfites from wine,” said James Kornacki, the founder of Üllo, who got his doctorate in chemistry from Northwestern.

Sulfite, otherwise known as sulfur dioxide (SO2), is a preservative in wine that keeps the drink from going bad. What Üllo does is create a filter that attracts the sulfite out of the liquid.

“It’s a sponge, almost,” Kornacki said. “It absorbs sulfite by forming bonds directly to sulfite, but it does not interact with anything else in the wine.”

That’s a key element to Üllo’s product. You want to remove the sulfite, but keep other things the same like the pH level and of course the ethanol, which gives you the buzz, Kornacki said.

The devices on Kickstarter will include the wine topper for $50:

And the carafe and decanter, which will sell for $110.

 

 

Üllo, which is based at health incubator MATTER and moved in when the space first opened in the Merchandise Mart, can reduce sulfite in wine to less than 10 parts per million, which is the level that is naturally occurring. And the results have been verified by two independent labs in California, Kornacki said.

Images courtesy of Üllo