No added sulphur: what it means
Sulphur is the oldest and most common addition to wine. Almost every wine in the world gets some, to protect it from oxygen and bacteria. A wine with no added sulphur goes without, and relies on healthy grapes, a clean cellar and proper storage.
What sulphur does in wine
Sulphur dioxide (SO₂, hence “sulphites”) protects wine from oxidation, from bacteria and from unwanted yeasts. It is added at harvest, after fermentation and before bottling. It works, but in high doses it also closes the aroma and dulls the texture.
And worth knowing: even with no additions at all, the yeasts make a little sulphur themselves during fermentation. There is no wine with no sulphur at all, which is why we always write “no added sulphur”.
How much, in practice
In the EU up to 150 mg per litre may be added to dry red wine, and up to 200 mg to white and rosé. In organic wine the ceiling is lower: 100 and 150. Above 10 mg per litre the label must say “contains sulphites”.
With our producers the numbers look different. At Herbert Zillinger’s, sulphur goes in only for stabilisation, around 10 mg per litre. Felix & Alex make a single sulphur addition of 10 mg before bottling — the only thing added. And zero-zero wines don’t even have that: no added sulphur and no other additions at any stage.
Three stories
Florian of Quantum has made wine alone since 2014, on two hectares of granite soils around Maissau in the Weinviertel. In the cellar there is nothing: spontaneous fermentation in open wooden boxes, and bottling with no fining, no filtration and no added sulphur — by signed declaration.
Martin Wörner (Marto) of Rheinhessen studied conventional winemaking, which taught him that wine without sulphur “doesn’t really exist” — until he tasted a bottle from Gut Oggau. He went to work for them in Burgenland, and from there for Tom Lubbe in Roussillon, where, in his words, “everything came together”.
Gerhard Pittnauer named his series Dogma, after Dogme 95, Lars von Trier’s film movement that banned itself lighting, soundtrack and effects. The same idea in the cellar: give up sulphur, fining and filtration, and what is left is one Blaufränkisch from one vineyard.
How to store and serve
Wine with no added sulphur doesn’t spoil quickly, but it is less forgiving of heat and shaking. Keep it cool, dark and at a steady temperature. In an Israeli summer a wine fridge is best, and certainly not a cupboard next to the oven.
On opening, the nose is sometimes a little closed at first, or there is a touch of natural CO₂ that tickles the tongue. A few minutes in the glass or a carafe sort it out. The back label of Zillinger’s bottles says exactly that: the wines are bottled alive and unfiltered, sometimes with a little natural CO₂, cloudiness possible — decanting recommended.
An open bottle keeps in the fridge for a day or two, sometimes longer. Some wines open up on the second day.
Wines with no added sulphur
Questions
24.10.2026