No Preservatives Added: what it actually means

No Preservatives Added is one of the most asked-about things on our shelf and one of the most misunderstood. Here is what it actually means, why these wines take more work to make, and how to get the best out of them.

What it actually means

No Preservatives Added means exactly what it says: nothing has been added to the wine to preserve it.

Most wine in the world, organic included, has a small amount of preservative added during making and again before bottling. It is standard practice, and it has been for a very long time. It keeps wine stable, protects it from oxygen and stops it changing in the bottle on the way to you.

That includes the rest of our own range, and it is worth being straight about how much. Australian wine law permits up to 250 mg/L of added preservative in a dry wine. Certified organic and biodynamic producers work to a tighter standard again, generally capped between 100 and 150 mg/L depending on the certifying body and the style of wine. Certification is not a claim we make about ourselves; it is audited, so every wine we release sits inside that lower band. It is not something we have made much noise about, but it is the same instinct that led to the No Preservatives Added range in the first place.

When we make a No Preservatives Added wine, we leave that step out. Everything else about how we work stays the same: the same certified organic fruit, the same growers, the same hands in the winery.

One thing worth clearing up, because it comes up constantly. No Preservatives Added is not the same as preservative-free. Grapes produce a small amount of preservative naturally as they ferment, so a trace will always be there. What we can control is whether any more goes in, and in these wines, none does.

Why they are harder to make

Preservative is a safety net. Take it away and every decision before it has to be better.

It starts in the vineyard. Fruit has to come in clean and in good condition, because there is nothing downstream to correct a problem with. That pushes the work back to picking dates, canopy management and how quickly fruit gets off the vine and into the winery.

In the winery, it becomes a question of oxygen and temperature. Both are managed tightly the whole way through, from ferment to bottling, and the wine spends as little time exposed as possible.

It also narrows what you can do with the wine afterwards. These are wines made to be bottled and drunk, not held. That is a deliberate trade, and it is the reason the range is built around fresh, bright styles rather than anything that wants years in a cellar.

The short version: it is less about what we leave out and more about everything that has to go right to make leaving it out possible.

What it means in the glass

These wines taste young, and that is the point.

Aromatics tend to come through clearly and directly, without much sitting between the fruit and your nose. Whites and rosé land bright and fresh. The reds are built lighter and more open than a wine made to age, which makes them easy to pour on a warm evening rather than something you have to plan a meal around.

They also move faster than other wines. A No Preservatives Added wine will change in the glass over an evening, and it will change in the bottle over months rather than years. Neither is a fault. It is simply a wine with less between it and the air.

If you usually drink wine within a week of buying it, you will not notice any difference in how you use these. If you are in the habit of putting bottles away for a few years, this is the range where that habit should not apply.

Looking after them at home

Nothing complicated, but a few things matter more here than they do with the rest of the shelf.

• Keep them cool. Heat is the one thing that will undo a No Preservatives Added wine quickest. A cupboard away from the kitchen beats a wine rack next to the oven, and the back of the fridge beats the door.
• Drink them young. These are made for the vintage they are released in, not for putting away.
• Once open, treat them like they are open. Recork or stopper them, put them in the fridge, and finish them inside a day or two. That goes for the reds as well.
• Serve the reds slightly cool. Twenty minutes in the fridge before pouring suits the style better than room temperature.

If a bottle has been sitting somewhere warm for a while, stand it up somewhere cool for a day before you open it.

The Wine Lovers No Preservatives Added range

The range was a single wine for a long time. As of 2026, it is now four.

All four are made from certified organic fruit and are vegan-friendly.