Natural wine - when is wine not natural?

Lost in translation: This article was originally written in German. The translation is likely to be stilted.

Natural wine - when is wine not natural?

We asked three people.

“A natural wine is a wine that contains very little sulfur. There should be a note on every bottle or even a warning, because a wine that has too little sulfur will have no protection against oxidation and will develop off-tones. Natural wines are not for beginners who want a straight glass of wine. No way." - Peter.

“Natural wines are wines that are organic or biodynamic, hand-picked, spontaneously fermented and have no added sulfur dioxide. Some white natural wines are pressed like red wines or stored in amphoras. Many belong to the orange wine category. A natural wine, for those who have time for that kind of thing, can be a revelation but is just as often simply strange”. -Louise.

“Natural wine is currently not an official classification, although there are associations of like-minded people who follow this approach. Here we compare the permitted addition of sulfites in the EU with that of the French vins naturels.

Sulfites are present in all wines. They are natural by-products of fermentation. After fermentation, a wine has between 10 to 20 mg/l natural sulfites. Without sufficient oxidation protection through the addition of sulfites, carcinogenic acetaldehydes can be formed in red wines. Some people are allergic to sulfites in wine. On every marketable bottle of wine, even natural wine, it says: “contains sulfites.”” - Julius.

I have been following Vin Naturel or natural wine since day 1. Natural wine is a cellar practice and requires the cultivation of organic grapes. Just before this phenomenon, there was a basement practice called "minimal intervention." In any case, it led to cooler wines. More casual, open and drinkable. For me, doing without new oak barrels marked the end of the overseas era and everything became more relaxed. “Unoaked Chardonnay” was the buzzword. But it went go further.

In France, in the Corbieres, I unexpectedly stopped in a lovely wine village and rang a cellar doorbell. Someone had written vin naturel on a slate. Garlands of flowers hung from the window. It was afternoon "après le dejeuner". I rang the bell. Groans and noises from the bed could be heard from the window. Embarrassed, I slid away and was almost back to the car when the cellar door opened and a guy was standing there smoking. He waved me into the salon. He only had one wine. The labels were handmade. There was no appellation, no designation of origin. The place was a mess. He mumbled something and disappeared. I stood there with a cherry-red Cinsault in a dirty glass and heard the wasps buzzing from a nest in the old, rotten rosette in the ceiling. A good quarter of an hour later he came with two bottles in a box and demanded 60 francs from me. I wanted to run away. I paid and took the bottles home. A year later I opened a bottle and made salad dressing with it. The second bottle went into a sauerbraten. Bienvenue au vin naturel. I had a glimpse into a parallel universe in which, instead of ambitiously trying to run a wine business in Germany, I ended up stuck in a freak existence somewhere in a freak village in the south and because I don't have any money for barrels and a few vines, I left the wine to itself.

There are also winemakers who, without explicitly describing this as natural wine, bring wines onto the market with the statement “without added sulfur dioxide”. "LS", which can mean "low sulphites", or "senza aggiunta di anidride solforosa", "sin adición de dióxido de azufre". These wines have some protection against oxidation from SO2, which is naturally produced during fermentation. But only a certain amount. In this case you have to be open to and accepting of  oxidation. It's a cultural question, like whether to wear underwear or shave your armpits.

I can very well understand why some winemakers avoid the term natural wine. Wouldn't they be admitting that all their previous wines were somehow unnatural? The same goes for winemakers who don't trust the organic movement. Was all our care and responsibility in the vineyard over generations somehow invalid? Today, in Spring 2022, there are a multitude of concepts that we as retailers and wine lovers must navigate. This will certainly not be the last time we deal with this topic.

Wine without the addition of sulfur dioxide. Here is a small culinary selection:

When I write culinary, I mean that the wine goes very well with the food. It sounds stupid, doesn't it? “Goes well with food.” What nonsense. But what I mean by that is the following. When you taste this wine, you can immediately imagine what you want to enjoy it with. Cod with black cabbage and lots of butter. Culinary!

Spirito Libero Maremma Toscana DOC Organic, Tenuta Casteani

Sangiovese from the Tuscan coastal region. I'm imagining a bean dish with wild boar belly. Yes. Exactly. I'll stop this post right there and since I'm neither a hunter nor have a hunting ground, I'll go to the market.

Riesling Schwäbischer Landwein organic, weingut roterfaden

Exotic white wine beyond compare. If wine not only promises transcendence again, but delivers it, I'll be there. Pangalactic. Plus salmon on cedar wood.

Puszta Libre organic wine from Austria, Claus Preisinger

No winemaker has done more to rethink our attitude to natural wine. If you want to lead yourself out of the labyrinth, pick up Puszta Libre. Please put artichokes on the left and anchovies on the right on my pizza.