What is Natural Wine?

If you can tell anything about us by just browsing our site, we hope you can tell that we put a lot of thought into what we feature here and who we support.

For us, natural wine was a no brainer. Not only do the wines have a certain character to them that we find enchanting, they also give us the opportunity to hear the stories of the people and places behind them. While natural wine has gained more attention in recent years, there is still quite a bit of confusion around the term. We aren’t necessarily experts on the subject, but we wanted to share with you our own definition and why natural wine matters to us.

To keep it simple, we believe that at a minimum, natural wine should be farmed organically and made with the least possible use of chemicals, additives, and overly technological procedures. Much like produce, we believe natural wine is a seasonal agricultural product that should reflect the place and conditions in which it was grown. Most importantly, natural wines are made in the vineyard and transformed in the cellar, resulting in live and energetic juice, full of naturally occurring microbiology.

If you see a wine on our site, know we’ve asked about the following and, unless noted, the wine…
… is farmed organically, and at minimum, without chemicals in the vineyard
… is wild fermented (Also known as native yeast)
… is made without overly technological interventions so it retains its character and terroir
… does not see the addition of any chemicals, except SO2
… is made by a winemaker who we’ve personally looked into and feel comfortable supporting

We know that everyone’s definition of natural varies a little, and we’re not ones to be dogmatic. We want to provide you with all the information about what goes into a wine and let you decide if you want to support it. We also believe in supporting winemakers who are on their way to fully lining up with our definition of natural. It’s our goal to support those who are working toward making fully natural wines and to tip the needle in favor of more organic and biodynamic wine production, more open wine ingredient publishing, less intervention in the cellar, and farming practices that are both sustainable and equitable. 

In case you want to get nerdy or want to know more about any of the terms you'll see on this site, we’ve included some of our musings on natural wine topics below.

Organic / Biodynamic Farming

Wild Fermentation / Native Yeast

Additions / Interventions / Manipulations

Unfined / Unfiltered

The Sulfur Discussion (SO2)

Preserving Styles that Need Manipulation

 

*Credit to all the winemakers we've met and visited, Jenny Lefcourt of Jenny + Francois Selections, Luke and Trinie of Walden Selections, Zev Rovine, and Isabelle Legeron of RAW Wine for their substantial influence on our views of what makes a wine natural.