No Preservatives Added Wines - what are they and how are they made?
Tamburlaine is leading the way with our Contemporary Organics vision, successfully producing award-winning organic, vegan-friendly, low sulphur and no added sulphur (preservatives) wines. No Added Sulphur wines or No Preservatives Added wines have no sulphur dioxide (sulphites, SO2 or additives 220 or 224) added, but may still contain trace amounts that occur naturally in grapes. As long as these wines test below 10 parts per million this label is permitted to be used.
While low amounts of preservatives used in wine generally have not been found to affect most people, those with a sulphite sensitivity may experience headaches, itching of the skin, digestive issues, abdominal discomfort and other symptoms when exposed, and choosing no added preservative wines may help prevent these symptoms.
Key Production Processes of No Added Sulphur Winemaking
We use ‘bio protection’ products in the vineyard at harvest for our Preservative Free fruit. These products are based around non-saccharomyces yeast strains.
Optimized Machine harvesters with onboard destemming capabilities are used for whole berry collection, reducing winery processing time and further chance of oxidation. Ideally, all fruit is harvested at night or early morning for optimal fruit temperatures upon transportation to the winery.
Once received at the winery, our grapes are immediately processed using safeguarding techniques and efficiencies to guarantee quality is retained during critical stages, such as pressing, clarification and the initiation of fermentation. Flotation is readily used, especially for our white wines.
Post fermentation and storage is critical. We utilise cold temperatures of full tanks, keeping wine on light lees/yeast and maintaining rigorous lab analysis prior to bottling. Dissolved oxygen levels are monitored all the way through to packaging and distribution.
We're constantly striving to reduce our carbon footprint both in the vineyard and winery, employing renewable energy options with solar integration across both our Orange and Hunter Valley wineries.
At Tamburlaine, we're always pushing the envelope with the aim of leaving the planet even better than we found it.
If you have purchased a No Preservatives Added wine from us, please note that they are best consumed within 1-2 years of purchase, as wines without preservatives are not suitable for ageing or long-term storage. Keep cool and away from sunlight. Once opened, keep refrigerated (and allow to warm up to closer to room temp just prior to consuming if required) and these are best consumed within 3 days.
Thank you to Shannon, winemaker at Pokolbin for providing most of the above information.
