Au Naturale

martha-toumenwines
martha-toumenwines

Using a word like “natural” to describe wine might sound superfluous. It’s all natural, right?

Not to be mistaken with organic, biodynamic, sustainable or vegan wine, natural wine merges elements from each of the aforementioned styles into its own distinctive concept. Although there is no official definition, the general idea is that nothing is added or removed from the wine, making the entire process as low-intervention as possible.

L’Aureate skin-contact chardonnay, of Fulton’s Old World Winery

The Oxford Companion to Wine’s criteria for natural wine are as follows:

  • Grapes are typically grown by small-scale, independent producers
  • Grapes are hand picked from sustainable, organic or biodynamic vineyards
  • Wine is fermented with no added yeast (i.e. native yeasts)
  • No additives are included in fermentation (yeast nutrients, sugars, etc.)
  • Little or no sulfites are added

At their finest, natural wines can be unique in flavor with unparalleled liveliness. At their worst, they can be ultra-funky and overall bizarre. There is an inherent unpredictability with natural wine–intriguing to some, but certainly not all.

Natural wine seemed to peak in popularity prior to 2020, as consumer gravitation toward small-batch and sustainable products picked up pace. Although its trendiness may have faded in recent years, these wines have maintained their appeal today, with natural wine shops and bars to be found across the globe.

Wine has been made for thousands of years, and many of those ancient practices are emulated by the natural-wine movement of the modern age. Its more recent history is traced back to the 1970s, when a group of French winemakers from the Beaujolais appellation decided to simplify their techniques and omit all pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and additives to the juice. The movement grew, and spread throughout Europe and beyond.

Austria, Italy and Spain are major European producers of natural wine, with France as the unsurprising leader. Japan makes natural wines as well, and many U.S. winemakers are taking part in the practice.

Georgian qvevri-fermented orange wine. [Shutterstock]
The present day nation of Georgia is home to orange wine. Arguably the trendiest in the natural wine portfolio, it’s made of white grapes that are fermented with the skin on, which imparts tannin and develops its amber hue. In Georgia, grapes ferment underground in large clay jugs called qvevri, rather than the conventional oak or stainless steel barrels. These jugs also add tannin and part of the orange tint to the wines.

Opinions of natural wine tend to be strongly pro or con. One argument against the style is that eliminating sulfates has no benefit, but significantly increases potential to make flawed wine. Others are skeptical of health claims that have yet to be substantiated, like reduced risk of hangovers due to the omission of said sulfates.

Natural wine has a complicated reputation, partially due to a lack of understanding and hesitation to break from the familiar when it comes to wine. But those who ride for natural wine will continue to do so, regardless of tomorrow’s trend forecast. Try it for yourself at Sonoma County’s Old World Winery or Martha Stoumen Wines–it might be your new favorite.

 

 

Related Posts

526 thoughts on “Au Naturale

  1. Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Safari. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The design and style look great though! Hope you get the problem fixed soon. Thanks

  2. Can I just say what a reduction to find somebody who really knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You undoubtedly know the best way to deliver an issue to gentle and make it important. More people have to learn this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre no more popular since you definitely have the gift.

  3. I do enjoy the manner in which you have framed this specific matter and it really does provide me personally a lot of fodder for thought. Nevertheless, through what I have experienced, I simply hope when the actual feed-back pack on that people today continue to be on issue and not start on a tirade involving the news of the day. Yet, thank you for this exceptional point and though I do not necessarily concur with the idea in totality, I respect your standpoint.

  4. Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch! "Remember It is 10 times harder to command the ear than to catch the eye." by Duncan Maxwell Anderson.

  5. Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said "You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear." She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!

  6. What i don’t understood is in truth how you are no longer really much more smartly-favored than you may be right now. You are so intelligent. You understand therefore considerably with regards to this subject, produced me personally consider it from so many varied angles. Its like men and women are not interested except it¦s one thing to accomplish with Woman gaga! Your own stuffs nice. At all times take care of it up!

  7. The very root of your writing while appearing agreeable originally, did not really settle perfectly with me after some time. Someplace within the sentences you actually were able to make me a believer but just for a very short while. I nevertheless have got a problem with your leaps in assumptions and one would do well to fill in all those breaks. When you can accomplish that, I will undoubtedly be fascinated.

  8. You really make it appear so easy with your presentation but I in finding this topic to be actually something that I believe I’d never understand. It seems too complex and extremely vast for me. I am looking ahead for your subsequent post, I’ll attempt to get the grasp of it!

  9. Definitely imagine that that you stated. Your favourite justification seemed to be at the net the simplest factor to keep in mind of. I say to you, I definitely get irked whilst folks think about worries that they plainly don’t realize about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top and defined out the entire thing with no need side-effects , folks could take a signal. Will probably be again to get more. Thank you

Leave a Reply

Loading...

Sections