Wine lesson: natural wine
The editors at FavorFlav love wine, but as soon as it gets to terroir, tannins and sulfites, their attention starts to wane a little. Because what exactly does that sommelier mean? Miss WineLane comes to the rescue and guides you through the wild forest of wine terminology. This week: natural wine.
What is it?
Natural wine – or vin nature – is made in the most natural way possible. With hand-picked grapes and wild yeasts, which are naturally present on the grape (yeast converts sugar into alcohol). To avoid losing any flavour, the juice is neither clarified nor filtered, which is why natural wine is often somewhat cloudy. The stabilising sulfite is also used little or not at all. With regular wine, such interventions are used extensively. Because they ensure stable and approachable wine, which is exactly what the average consumer wants. With natural wine, things are different. There are (as yet) no official regulations, so what you get in your glass can be quite surprising.
Is natural wine the same as organic or biodynamic wine?
Natural wine goes much further than organic wine. The grapes are, of course, also produced organically or biodynamically, meaning without artificial fertilisers and pesticides. But after the harvest, the certified organic farmer is free to use all kinds of (harmless) aids, such as oak ageing, lactic acid bacteria and even commercial yeasts. To shape the wine to their liking. For the extremist natural wine producer, that is totally not done. They add nothing and change absolutely nothing. With them, fate – or, in the best cases, a great deal of experience – determines the result.
What does it taste like?
Natural wines taste pretty freaky. It is all about the pure, unfiltered flavour: they are often earthy and barnyardy, somewhat more acidic and harsher than regular wine. And they also differ enormously from one another. Even those from the same producer. Because without a stabiliser such as sulfite, they are far from always consistent in flavour. But if you get your hands on a good one, you may never want another ‘boring’ mainstream mass-produced wine.
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