By this point in your life, you are all well versed in the farm-to-table movement. Essentially, food is grown under relatively natural conditions, and then you eat it. With a step back, it’s clear that such a movement is not exactly revolutionary. In other words, it makes perfect sense to follow such a pathway from production to consumption. Factory-to-table and farm-to-processing plant-to-table don’t sound quite as appealing. A similar mindset has been applied to wine in the form of natural wine, which just like the farm-to-table movement, aims to take us into the future by accessing the past. But what exactly is natural wine? Here is an entertaining review, and here is a brief summary:
No formal definition exists, but the general concept is “low-intervention” wine (literally fermented grape juice).
The grapes used are not sprayed with pesticides or herbicides, and they are hand-picked.
Native (or indigenous) yeast, as opposed to commercially available laboratory-grown yeast, are used in fermentation.
Additives which don’t have to be listed on the label (with examples being oak flavor, sugar, acid, and egg white) are not used.
Because alcohol is a byproduct of the fermentation of sugar, and sugar is not added, alcohol content tends to be lower.
If sulfites are used at all, they are used in small quantities at the time of bottling, solely for the sake of preservation.
The final product is often unfiltered and unfined. (Fining agents bind to undesired substances that can then be filtered.)
Because of minimal intervention, colors and flavors can occasionally (but not always) be quite different from conventional wine.
Some believe that hangovers are less likely due to lower sulfite (and perhaps lower alcohol) content. No clear evidence exists in this regard.
As always, enjoy responsibly.
2 Responses
I wonder how the name wine originated and only related to grapes.
Great question. Here is one explanation from Wine Spectator.