Sulphur-free wine tastes great but isn’t made to last

Sulphur has been used as a preservative and disinfectant in winemaking for thousands of years. The ancient Romans burned sulphur candles inside amphorae before filling them with wine because they knew it helped the wine stay fresh; sulphur dioxide was first added to wine as a preservative as long ago as the late 15th century. Today, the practice of adding sulphur dioxide, SO2, to wine is almost universal.