diff --git a/src/libostree/ostree-deployment.c b/src/libostree/ostree-deployment.c
index 2c2dc8405f..9d5763b255 100644
--- a/src/libostree/ostree-deployment.c
+++ b/src/libostree/ostree-deployment.c
@@ -76,18 +76,15 @@ _ostree_deployment_get_version (OstreeDeployment  *self,
   /* Try extracting a version for this deployment. */
   const gchar *csum = ostree_deployment_get_csum (self);
 
-  gchar *version = NULL;
   g_autoptr(GVariant) variant = NULL;
-  if (ostree_repo_load_variant (repo, OSTREE_OBJECT_TYPE_COMMIT, csum,
-                                &variant, error))
-  {
-    g_autoptr(GVariant) metadata = g_variant_get_child_value (variant, 0);
-    g_variant_lookup (metadata, OSTREE_COMMIT_META_KEY_VERSION, "s", &version);
-  }
+  if (!ostree_repo_load_variant (repo, OSTREE_OBJECT_TYPE_COMMIT, csum,
+                                 &variant, error))
+    return NULL;
 
-  self->version = version;
+  g_autoptr(GVariant) metadata = g_variant_get_child_value (variant, 0);
+  g_variant_lookup (metadata, OSTREE_COMMIT_META_KEY_VERSION, "s", &self->version);
 
-  return version;
+  return self->version;
 }
 
 /**