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18 July 2019

How is Natural Wine Different from Other Wines?

At this point, it would be amazing if you hadn’t heard of natural wine, it’s the latest trend to hit the wine-world by storm. Despite its reputation as somewhat of a buzzword, natural wine isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. If anything, it harkens back to a time when wine was made without that intervention of chemical herbicides and additives; a time before conventional winemaking.

In the last 50 years or so, winemaking has become so industrialised and chemically modified that it no longer even resembles what it was once adored for being - it is nothing like the artisanal scene that wine companies would have us believe it to be. Unfortunately, natural wine doesn’t have a set definition. It works on the broad ethos that nothing is added and nothing is taken away.

This approach to winemaking means that producers have to ditch the chemicals in the vineyard and the additives in the cellar - this is a step above organic and biodynamic wines, which can still contain some additives.

Ditch the Chemicals
Whilst most conventional wines are made with commercial yeast strains, natural wines go through a process called “spontaneous fermentation”, which is like the processes kimchi, kombucha and sourdough bread go through - and it has similar probiotic effects.

A bottle of natural wine contains a plethora of wild yeasts and gut-healthy bacteria as well as polyphenols - these are a group of antioxidants that have been proven to improve the beneficial flora populations in our guts - leading to improved health and longevity. The polyphenols are produced by the grapes as part of their own immune system - they protect the grapes from fungi, frosts and so on. These antioxidants then act in a similar way in our bodies when we consume them.

However, when grapes are treated with nasty chemical pesticides, they’re chemically protected from pests and the harsh growing conditions and don’t need to produce the polyphenols to protect themselves, which means that wine made with conventionally farmed grapes contain a lot less of these really beneficial antioxidants.

Natural wine’s greatest benefits lie in what it lacks in comparison to conventional wine. It does without the chemical intervention and modifications - both of which have been linked to adverse health effects such as headaches and hangovers. Chemicals sprays like glyphosate are being used liberally in vineyards, and studies have shown that these chemicals are finding their way into the wine. Glyphosate has been deemed carcinogenic to humans, and there is a big concern for the effect that they have on human health.

Fewer Additives in Natural Wine
A standard off-the shelf bottle of conventional wine can contain dozens of approved additives; things like sulphur dioxide, anti-foaming agents, added sugar and colorants, and winemakers aren’t required to list these on their labels.

The lack of additives is what some people find most appealing about natural wine, with many consumers stating that they get fewer hangovers and headaches. The science and research into this area is still young and somewhat inconclusive, but some studies have pointed the finger of blame at sulphites.

It is quite possible that sulphites can inhibit the production of positive gut-flora bacteria, which might be a contributing factor to why we get hangovers from wine. Sulphites are also known to deplete our glutathione levels, which helps to digest alcohol in the liver.

Other additives, such as commercial yeasts, tartaric acid and added sugars may have less questionable health effects, but they can definitely powerfully change the taste of winem softening and detracting from the wine's natural terroir.

Nutritious and More Delicious
The wild yeasts, bacteria and polyphenols all have different aroma compounds and flavour profiles that come together to influence the taste of the wine. The sterile filtration and added sulphites are used to kill off the remaining yeasts and organisms in order to stabilize the wine, which makes them more shelf-stable and consistent in taste. Natural wine however, is alive and constantly evolving, in the bottle and the glass.

In comparison to conventional wine which can be considered flat and one-dimensional; natural wine can have a wide range of interesting and unfamiliar flavour profiles, which challenges the perceptions of what a wine, or even a certain type of grape can taste like.