Natural wine is more of a movement than a product as such and is based on thousand year old wine making traditions – the way it used to be done. To be considered a natural wine, the vineyard should at the very least be practicing organic or biodynamic farming and should be preservative free (i.e. should not have sulphites added). Essentially, natural wine is about the wine making process and the producer. Let’s look at these aspects more closely…
The natural wine making process
It’s about minimal intervention. Grape growing that is allowed to take its own course (and yes that means the occasional losses due to diseases and pests), wild fermentation and no additives in the wine. No preservatives, no “designer” or man-made yeasts, no yeast nutrients, no acid and no bacteria added to the wine. And yes most conventional wines have all of these things added! Additionally, no fining and typically no oaking. Note if the wine is not fined, it is suitable for vegetarians and vegans as there will be no traces of fish, eggs or milk which are commonly used for fining – though fish not so much these days.
Many conventional winemakers are tasked with ensuring a wine looks, feels, smells and tastes the same, vintage to vintage, as commercially that's why the wine sells – it’s based on that known formula that works for the mass market and any change is shunned as it could negatively affect sales. There’s no experimenting. Costs are tightly controlled. All the variability it taken out and corners are cut for "efficiency" i.e. profit. But with natural wine making it’s the opposite. It's all about experimenting and variation – true expressions of terroir. The wines are 100% handcrafted – machines are not used to harvest grapes or at any stage throughout the wine making process.
As there’s no clear agreed definition for what constitutes a natural wine, most natural wine producers will loosely align to these philosophies but there are no guarantees. Read the label carefully and research the wine and producer.
The natural wine producer
Typically natural wine producers are very small scale single vineyard operations, not for commercial profit and all aspects of the wine making process are done in-house with passion and perseverance.
All of our wines are natural wines by any definition. Enjoy!
Cheers
