What are Naturally Sourced Wines?

01 March 2013

What is Natural Wine?

Naturally sourced Wines are simply wines that are made with the least possible use of chemicals, additives and overly technological procedures. Chemicals such as pesticides and sulphur are some of the main additions to most wine, so when natural wine is made avoid these where possible. The definition of natural wine is very similar to the German purity laws of beer making, which say that beer can be made only of water, barley and hops. To most, natural wine is made of grape juice and little else.

For those who simply enjoy drinking wine and are not bothered in how it is made, from what it is made and of the ingredients that make up your wine, you may not be interested in natural wine. For those who wish to discover more information about wines, availability of natural wine and some informative insights into natural wine as a whole, then please do continue reading.

Natural wine is not the same as organic wine. A wine can be considered organic if the grapes are grown organically. This does not stop the wine maker from using chemicals and sulphites. To be considered an official natural wine, the wine must have the following key aspects:

•   No synthetic molecules in the vines
•   Plowing or other solutions to avoid chemical herbicides
•   Use of indigenous yeast
•   Low yields
•   Handpicked grapes
•   Low to no filtering
•   Low to no sulphites
•   Winemaking that respects grapes
•   No chaptalization

Natural wines tend to be made in small quantities by artisans or independent producers from organically or biodynamically grown grapes in low yielding vineyards. They are then vinified without sugar, artificial yeasts or enzymes, or recourse to acidification or other adjustments. Most natural wines are neither filtered nor refined. A natural wine either has zero sulphur or a tiny amount that could go undetected to someone with sensitivity to the chemical. The motivation is to rediscover the true flavour of wine by capturing the sense of place and the nature of the vintage.

Over the years the natural wines themselves have progressed massively in terms of quality and consistency. It is probably fair to say that early attempts to make wines without sulphur produced variable results, with new techniques being developed to help create new and improved versions of natural wine.

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01 March 2013

What is Natural Wine?