Lately, you hear a lot about natural wine. These special wines are becoming increasingly popular. But there is still a lot of confusion about what natural wine exactly is. For example, what is the difference between natural wine and organic and biodynamic wine? What does natural wine taste like? And does it not give you a hangover, as is often claimed. We will explain everything to you below.
There is no definition for natural wine. organic wine is made from organically grown grapes, biodynamic wine according to the principles of Biodynamic viticulture, but for natural wine it is all a bit more complicated. It is better to see natural wine as an 'approach' or a 'philosophy'. To understand this approach better, it helps to see winemaking in two phases: the first phase in the vineyard where the grapes are grown and the second phase in the cellar where wine is made from the grapes.
Organic and biodynamic winemakers work organically in the vineyard: they do not spray herbicides and pesticides. Biodynamic winemakers go one step further in the vineyard by seeing it as a 'living organism'. Natural wine makers do the same: they work organically (or sometimes biodynamically) in the vineyard.
The characteristic difference arises in the wine cellar, where wine is made from the grapes. Unlike other wine makers, natural wine makers do not 'make' wine. They let nature take its course as much as possible. Other (also organic) wine makers, on the other hand, try to give the wine a certain style. For example, to ensure that different vintages do not differ too much from each other. There are many possibilities for this. They can add lactic acid bacteria to make the wine less acidic or tartaric acid to bring more acid into the wine, they can add carbon to decolourise the wine, they can filter the wine, add wood chips to influence the taste and almost every wine maker adds sulphite to preserve the wine.
Such interventions are not harmful to your health. And many of these methods to 'style' the product are very natural and have been used since time immemorial. But not by natural wine makers. They do not add anything and do not intervene during the fermentation process. There is no certification for natural wine. This has been tried, but the wine makers have not succeeded in reaching an agreement on what natural wine exactly is, let alone what conditions you should meet.
Natural wines can vary considerably per harvest year. Do not expect that if the 2014 harvest year of a certain winemaker was very popular, that 2015 will be the same - and vice versa of course. Moreover, natural wines can be quite 'freaky'. Where other wine makers would have intervened long ago to get a wine that meets the wishes of the consumer, natural wine makers do not care. They wait in amazement to see what nature gives them. Many natural wine makers do not consider themselves as wine 'makers' but more as organic grape growers, or even artists. They see it as their task to grow grapes that are as healthy as possible, and to stay as close to nature as possible, not to make a certain type of wine that is commercially popular.
That often produces very unique, unusual and often very beautiful wines. Sometimes not. It is nonsense to assume that natural wines are 'tastier' than regular wines. Sometimes a natural wine is less 'successful'.
One of the most striking things about the recent interest in natural wines is that the makers have started a kind of 'movement'. They organize their own wine fairs (RAW is the best known) and have their own (unique) 'scene' in the wine world.
There are restaurants and especially wine bars that only serve natural wines. Then you can be surprised with unique wines that can differ considerably in style from what you are used to from your liquor store. Enjoy in moderation, because really, even natural wines can give you a hangover.
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