Have you ever heard of “natural wine”? Did you ever think that wine could be anything other than “natural”? Well, it can, and a lot of it is. The discussion, or issue, of natural wine is complicated, and ripe with opinion and attitude. The word “natural” implies that all other wine is “un-natural”, which is not at all accurate. A definition of natural wine is a wine for which the grapes are grown organically and then the wine is not modified, added to or subtracted from in any way. No pesticides, herbicides, or non-organic fertilizers; only naturally occurring, ambient yeast may be used; no fining or filtering, no modifying processes and no added sulfur. Sulfur is a naturally occurring element. It has been used as a preservative in wine for over 500 years. If it is used in the production of wine, that wine can not be called “natural”. I generally disagree with this rule. Having met and tasted with hundreds of wine makers and winery owners, their goal is to make wine that would be considered “natural” except for the use of sulfur. They want to make a wine that represents the terroir of their vineyard and the variables of each vintage. Sulfur makes the wine stable and ensures that the wine arrives at our table representing the efforts and intentions of the winemaker. I love wine and love the idea of “natural” wine. Some are great, some really challenge our ideas of what wine should be, and some are just not good. Some “natural” wines taste different from “standard” wine in a similar way sour beer tastes different from “standard” beer. In commercial winemaking, sulfur is often used from the instant the grapes are harvested to the moment the wine is bottled. As I said previously, most of the winemakers I have met are actively trying to limit how much sulfur they use. In large scale commercial winemaking, often the goal is a consistent product that customers can rely on to be the same every year, regardless of the vintage variables. To obtain this consistency there are some techniques that are often used: micro-oxygenation to manipulate and alter the mouthfeel and the quality of tannin in a wine; the use of a centrifuge to remove water to make a wine richer and darker; the use of food color to manipulate…the color of wine; fining and filtering wine to remove sediment and ensure a crystal clear product and, not really finally, but for this article, finally the addition of sugar and/or acidity. Sugar is added as food for the yeast, to raise the alcohol level or simply to make the wine sweeter. Acidity is added to help ensure there is balance in the wine. There is a range in winemaking from a product created in a lab and made in a factory, all the way to other end of the spectrum with “natural” wine. Everything in between could use some, or none, of these processes.
Wineries don’t have to tell us what is in their wine. If wine was regulated as food, or “produce”, wineries would be obligated to put the ingredients on their labels. But, here in the US, wine is considered a vice and is regulated alongside tobacco and firearms. Our government doesn’t want to normalize, or advocate for wine consumption, which they think they would be doing by changing how it is categorized. A lot of wineries also don’t want the categorization of wine to be changed because they don’t want us to know what is actually in their wine and they feel changing their labels would be too expensive.
We currently have 4 “natural” wines on our menu for you to decide whether “natural” wine is for you.
08/15/2020
