If you are a wine lover, you may have seen, or even tasted, a natural wine. They’ve been gaining a following for years, and the holidays might be a good time to see what they’re all about.
What exactly is a natural wine? And what makes them special?
Natural wines are produced with minimal human intervention. Grapes are generally grown organically and the winemaking process avoids additives, commercial yeasts and excessive sulfites.
Fans say it’s wine in its purest form: a reflection of the grape, the terroir and the vintage. It’s the way wine was made for thousands of years, before commercial wine existed. For these reasons, natural wine has gone beyond just a wine category, evolving into a winemaking philosophy.
But the definition of “natural wine” is not fixed. Most are not labeled or “certified,” so you may need to do a little investigating. (In France, some may be labeled “Method Vin Nature,” a designation also adapted by the EU in 2022.) Ask your wine supplier or sommelier to point you in the right direction.
In the US, you may see wines referred to as Zero Zero, which refers to zero additives and zero sulfites added.
Alice Feiring is the author of six books on wine and creator of The Feiring Line on Substack. She says that if you drink these wines regularly, you develop an instinct to identify a natural wine: “In general, the wine is more alive and open in the mouth.”
The uniqueness of natural wines, for him, “includes everything from the people and the soils to the bottle and the glass.”
Natural winemakers take a very personal approach
Oenophiles drawn to natural wines appreciate the efforts of winemakers, which typically involve farming on small plots of land and limiting production. Winemakers sometimes focus on grapes indigenous to particular areas, perhaps ancestral varieties that may not be as well known or commonly used.
Maggie Dahill is the beverage director at Miss Ada and Theodora restaurants in Brooklyn, NY, which have robust natural wine programs. She characterizes natural wine as “honest wine made by real people, with transparency throughout the winemaking process.”
Dahill is attracted by the experimental nature and creativity, the purpose behind the production of natural wines. She also appreciates the winemakers’ attention to sustainability.
Some natural wines may need some judiciously added sulfur to survive and sell, but “where there IS intervention, is an honest and open part of the wine story”, says Dahill.
And she likes that “the lack of legal definition forces us to keep talking about what a natural wine is.”
Leading the way in quality and taste
“Of course, some natural wines can be cloudy, strange or just plain weird, but many others will be just as exceptional as premium wines made by more commercial methods,” says Dahill.
Often, the taste has a freshness and you may notice some gas; natural carbon dioxide remains as a natural preservative, but it dissipates with air. And natural wines are often unfiltered, giving them that cloudy appearance.
Wines from natural producers are different every year and can even change from bottle to bottle.
For fans, it’s all part of the excitement.
At Kings County Wines, a curated wine shop in Brooklyn, a color-coded sign indicates which wines are certified organic, sustainable, biodynamic, made with minimal sulfites, and/or natural—with natural defined as “Any what does that mean”.
A little natural bubbly for the new year?
In the world of natural wines, you may come across a Pét-Nat. This is a sparkling wine, short for natural pétillant. Feiring says it is most likely the first sparkling wine ever produced. Wine that hasn’t finished fermenting is bottled, trapping carbon dioxide, which gives it sparkle. It’s a much less complicated process than making champagne.
Orange wines are another category that is often considered natural. These are wines made with grapes normally used for white wine, but which are left in contact with their skins for a longer time during the fermentation process, giving them a special color.
One way to look for natural wines is to look on the back of the bottle for the name of the importer. Feiring recommends winemakers such as Selections, José Pastor, Louis/Dressner Selections, Coeur and Jenny & Francois. Or look for producers who specialize in natural wines: Dahill recommends Milan Nestarec (Czech Republic), Strekov 1075 (Slovakia), Oriol Artigas and Vinyes Tortuga (Catalonia) and Lammidia (Italy).
Natural wine tells a story of time and place. Such a beautiful way to brighten up your wine drinking and holiday gift giving, as well as support smaller winemakers who are doing the work!
Katie Workman writes regularly about food for the Associated Press. She blogs at https://themom100.com/. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.
She has written two cookbooks focused on family cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.”
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