Temple Bruer lives and dies by reverence for the grape, and reverence for the wine lover. To wit, we create organic, sustainable wines with minimal intervention and additives.
Most wineries use a chemical in the form of Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), an agent that helps to stop the wine from oxygenating and to extend the life of the wine. When SO2 is added during the winemaking process we begin to see the effects of preservative-ridden wines that can cause pesky side-effects (red wine headache, anyone?).
Where possible, Temple Bruer creates wines without the need for chemical preservatives. Thanks to our state of the art winery and bottling technologies, we’ve been able to replace SO2 with attention to detail.
Almost all wine has some SO2 that occurs naturally from the fermentation process. We have carefully vetted the yeast we use and selected only the highest quality and lowest SO2 producing yeasts. Then, throughout the winemaking and bottling process we ensure minimal oxygen interacts with the wine. The yeasts and trailblazing, innovative processes we use leave no detectable SO2 in our preservative-free bottled wines.
Our Preservative Free wines are certified with no detectable SO2 by an external laboratory, the Australian Wine Research Institute.
Temple Bruer's Preservative Free journey first started when Barbara challenged David to make a wine without SO2 - the theory "if we don't need it, then why use it?!". In 2006 Barbara and David made two versions of a Cabernet Merlot from the same fruit, one Preservative Free and the other barrel aged with SO2. Over the year, they compared the two and, though both were good, they both highly preferred the purity of fruit of the Preservative Free wine.
Commercially making wine without SO2 was so unheard of at the time David was forced to sign a bottling agreement to not sue the bottling hall if the wine spoiled (spoiler, it didn't!).
Our Preservative Free journey continued with the release of a Preservative Free Shiraz in 2010 and grew from there. Today we make 10 Preservative Free varieties including the recent additions of a Cuvée Brut in 2021, plus a Grenache and Cabernet Shiraz Mataro in 2022.
So, how do we do it?
First and foremost, the core of our vineyards and winemaking is always high-quality, high-flavour, clean fruit. Year round, we focus on developing fruit flavour and quality in our vineyards. Our wines hero the essence of the fruit, rather than any additives.
Next, and just as important, less is more! We're all about minimal intervention. The less we do with the fruit the better to retain fruit purity and sense of place and the better the fruit, the less we need to do with it to make stunning wines.
Some varieties lend themselves better to a Preservative Free style. We ensure we pick the right varieties to honour the fruit in this style. To wit, Harvest time is extremely important ensuring the grapes are well balanced with the right sugar levels or, in technical terms, Baumé.
We ensure our fruit and winery is immaculately clean so there are no nasty microbes can be present in or enter the wine.
Extraction of tannins are closely watched by our amazing team during and after fermentation to not cause any harshness that would need to be aged out of the wine.
We also have state of the art gassing, transport, and bottling systems to keep the oxygen out.