What is natural wine?

In short: Natural wines are produced without any additives, especially chemicals, in either the vineyard or the cellar – neither during cultivation nor vinification. Nothing is added, nor are they fined. The goal is to express the aromatics of the grape variety and the terroir – everything that essentially defines the growing region (the soil, the climate, the topography) – as clearly as possible. The guiding principle is to have as little influence as possible on the wine's development and, above all, to ensure the long-term health of the soil and, consequently, the vines.

If your thirst for knowledge has now been awakened…

In a sense, what we understand by the somewhat vague term "natural wine" has existed for as long as wine itself. And that doesn't mean since Roman times, or that it originates from regions that once belonged to the Roman Empire, but rather: from Georgia. There, winemaking has a tradition stretching back almost 8,000 years. Excavations have uncovered clay pots whose bottoms were covered with grape seeds, suggesting that the first vines were cultivated, or bred, even back then.

The clay vessels in which the wine was fermented still exist today. In Georgia, they are called qvevri . In various other European countries, they have all sorts of different names; the most well-known is probably the generic term: amphora . Depending on the country of origin, they vary in capacity and, above all, in the composition of the clay. The more porous the material, for example, the greater its permeability to oxygen. Their behavior with regard to temperature also changes. Back then, these qvevri were buried up to their necks in the ground to prevent the wine from being exposed to abrupt temperature fluctuations. The clay vessels were filled with the pressed grapes, and the rest was a matter of time, weather conditions, or what we have called fermentation since Louis Pasteur.

This process, involving countless microorganisms, including the yeast strains that have colonized the grape skins, is quite fragile and depends on all sorts of external parameters, of which temperature is only one. Making wine in this way was therefore quite a gamble, the outcome of which was almost impossible to predict.

This changed fundamentally during the 20th century, primarily due to industrialization. This was preceded in the mid-19th century by the phylloxera epidemic. The parasite, which arrived in France via imported vines from America, gradually decimated almost all of Europe's wine-growing regions, with few exceptions. Nearly the entire stock of Vitis vinifera , the noble grapevine, was destroyed and had to be replanted, as the aphid primarily attacked the rootstocks. Only a few American grape varieties appeared resistant. To prevent re-infestation, these varieties were subsequently used as rootstocks, onto which the native grape varieties were grafted. Since then, large portions of the world's grapevines are no longer grown on their own roots.

They are few, but they do exist: regions and vineyards that have been spared from infestation. For example, those where the vines thrive on extremely sandy soils, where the phylloxera cannot survive. A prime example is Izmael Gozalo's Verdejo vines in Nieva, Castile, in northern Spain. They grow on clay and quartz sand. Some of them are now 180 to 240 years old and have dug meters deep into the earth. Verdejos are often fresh and straightforward drinking wines—lively acidity, a touch of citrus, some green fruit. The wines that Izmael makes from them, however, develop an almost unbelievable complexity for the grape variety. If you give them some time to open up and allow the wine, with its high alcohol content of over 13%, a little air, then, beyond all the lively freshness, a rich body emerges, and alongside the citrus fruits, notes of yellow fruit compote, honey, and salt appear.

With industrialization, large-scale viticulture became an economic issue. New technologies (e.g., tractors replacing horses) enabled the cultivation of ever larger areas and the maximization of yields, and thus profits. At the same time, however, the risk of crop failures increased, and on this scale, such failures could threaten the very existence of wineries.

Wine is a monoculture that constantly depletes the soil of the same nutrients. This needs to be counteracted in one way or another. The agricultural industry gradually developed new methods and processes to operate quickly and efficiently on these large scales. Pesticides and herbicides were sprayed and injected to keep insects and pests under control.

At this point, it's worth remembering the yeast strains that colonize the grape skins and are destroyed by these treatments. This, in turn, prevents fermentation from starting, or at best slows it down, since these yeasts are responsible for converting the fruit sugar into alcohol. In conventional winemaking, pure yeast cultures provide a solution. These are individual yeast strains cultivated under laboratory conditions. Once added, they ensure that fermentation proceeds smoothly. Each yeast strain, in turn, produces its own distinct aroma. In extreme cases, the selection of added yeasts can therefore influence the aroma profile almost independently of the grape variety. However, with the loss of the composition typical of a region and sometimes even a single vineyard site, a multitude of naturally occurring strains, the wine loses a crucial expression. Today, according to two EU regulations, 56 additives are permitted, which do not have to be declared on the bottles. They can be used to influence a multitude of the parameters that characterize a wine — from the color to the tannin content.

In its industrialized form, winemaking differs essentially little from the production of a car: every production step is standardized to minimize deviations and make them repeatable, also to ensure that each vintage tastes the same, almost regardless of external conditions.

There was – and still is – resistance to these mass-produced wines with their stereotyped flavor profiles. This was already evident in the 1970s in Beaujolais, France, the region that produces the famous Beaujolais Nouveau . Made from Gamay grapes, it is released in the same year it is harvested. At that time, the demand for these young, fresh red wines was so high that it could hardly be met. Many winemakers began increasing yields and harvesting the grapes earlier and earlier, before they had reached optimal ripeness, and then trying to compensate oenologically in the cellar for all the shortcomings that such practices entailed. Filtering, fining, and almost excessive sulfuring were used to meet the demands of the increasingly international market.

Sulfur has antibacterial properties. If you add sulfites to a wine, for example directly after harvesting to prevent the grapes from oxidizing or to inhibit malolactic fermentation, as is common practice with many conventionally produced Rieslings, you kill off its microbiome. While this makes the wines more stable and allows them to age longer, they lose a tremendous amount of vibrancy and expressiveness. These Beaujolais wines were ultimately more of an industrial product than an agricultural one.

Resistance to this, in some respects, irresponsible application of oenological methods essentially arose in all areas of winemaking. The most significant aspect is undoubtedly the work in the vineyard. While the use of pesticides protects the grapes from disease, it simultaneously damages biodiversity in the long term, and the vineyard as a living ecosystem becomes increasingly impoverished. Therefore, winemakers committed to natural wines generally work biodynamically. They employ cover crops to strengthen the soil microbiome and biodiversity. Sometimes, animals graze in the plots, providing natural fertilization. In this way, the health of the soil, and consequently the grapes, is sustainably ensured. Furthermore, the question of maximizing yield plays a significantly less important role. On the contrary, yields are often further reduced to improve the quality of the grapes. The grapes are usually harvested by hand and in small containers to avoid damaging the delicate skins of the grapes and causing them to oxidize prematurely, which could hardly be prevented except by early sulfuring.

The health of the vines, in turn, is the starting point for the work in the cellar, where the same principle of sustainability applies as in the vineyard. All natural wines are spontaneously fermented, meaning exclusively by the activity of the yeasts naturally occurring on the vineyard site. Nothing is added, and no fermentation process is interrupted. The yeasts work until they die and sink to the bottom. The wines often age along with these dead yeast cells—a process known as sur lie . Fermentation vessels are no longer limited to amphorae, although they are still frequently used. Aging naturally takes place in wooden barrels of all sizes, in stainless steel tanks, concrete eggs, and fiberglass tanks; on a smaller scale, glass demijohns are also used. Ideally, bottling is also done without added sulfur, so that the wine that ultimately ends up in the bottle remains vibrant. Alice Bouvot of Domaine de L'Octavin in the French Jura describes what we understand as natural wine more aptly as 'vin vivant,' living wine.