Metabisulphite and Sorbate Necessary?

[floydmeddler]

Hello winemakers!

I'm a beer brewer but have recently fallen in love with Vintners Reserve Sauvignon Blanc. Just finished a 30 bottle kit and have another one on the go at the min. My question is: Are the metabisulphite and sorbate additions necessary? I like the idea of wine made with grape juice and yeast only. OK... and maybe bentonite and Isinglass.

The wine has been in primary for about a month now and I even ramped the temp up to 25c for a week to make sure everything was fermented out. I've degassed the hell out of it too. Don't feel the need to kill/inhibit the yeast as it has finished its work. It's in secondary now and I'm happy to leave it there until Nov then bottle so that it's ready for Xmas.

Will metabisulphite and sorbate make a better wine or can I just leave it out?

Cheers!

[oldbloke]

If you're really absolutely sure the yeast is dead and/or the sugar is all totally gone, you can skip the sorbate.
If you're confident it's not going to oxidise for any reason, you can skip the sulphite.
If you use sorbate you must use sulphite or you'll be able to taste the sorbate.

[floydmeddler]

Cheers oldbloke. I did shake the hell out of the fermenter (jerry can) so there will be oxygen in there. Is this a problem?

What would you do?

Cheers

[oldbloke]

You'll have been shaking co2 out more than O2 in though. Unless there's a lot of headspace it probably isn't a problem. OTOH, since having a gallon of parsnip ruined by oxidation, I always sulphite, just in case. I usually sorbate too these days, but not always.