I agree. A lot of instructions I've seen for making wine call for adding Sodium Metabisulfate in the beginning to kill off unwanted microbes in the juice, and again at the end to stop fermentation. I didn't use it and my wine was still drinkable, but I'm not a conno-sewer. For commercial wine the sulfites make quality control a lot easier. I think in USA they're required to state on the bottle "contains sulfites."
EDIT: I want live yeast in my wine and my beer, and I'm fine with a little sediment at the bottom, and I don't care about shelf life, fresh is best.