The wine world sure has a deep, extensive history. If you've stuck around with us for some time, you'll have read about places like Barbaresco, New Zealand's Marlborough, or even our guides to red wine grapes or sparkling wines. 

But today's topic is a little bit of a maverick. You may have seen it being featured on social media, or appear on talk shows. It sure is making rounds. Not entirely a new trend (more on this later), natural wines have sometime been a topic of intense cult following and sometimes confusion in the wine world.

But have no fear, today we'll be giving you the rundown on this seemingly-mystical wine category so you will know exactly what you're in for when the next time you reach for one of these playful, unconventional looking-bottles along the aisle!

What Are Natural Wines?!

Natural wines are not quite a new category of wine, say, like the Super Tuscans are. Rather, they're part of a modern movement focused on producing foods and drinks with fewer additives and processing steps, promoting them as more natural or healthier options. 

Think gluten-free crackers or no-added-sugar jams. Natural wines are essentially vinified grape juice - often from organic grapes - without additives such as sulfite preservatives which are commonly used in typical still wines.

It's two sides of the same coin, and is certainly nothing new. Going by this definition, producers of wine have been unknowingly making natural wine since antiquity, when sulfite preservatives weren't known of. Even when the ancient greeks discovered the antiseptic qualities of sulfur, production of natural wine was still ongoing in various parts of the world.

The ancient Greeks would have stored grape juice in clay jars called Amphorae to ferment and age.

The likely creators of the first natural wines are believed to be the ancient Georgians. At around 6,000 BC, they were already burying jars of grape juice underground to ferment.

Also known as “low-intervention” or “naked” wines, there aren't any set rules for natural wines, but the general consensus is this: Wine should be made with organically grown grapes that have not been treated with pesticides or herbicides, while most grapes are harvested by hand. There are also limited, if not nonexistent, additional processes during the winemaking, such as filtration.

What Else is Different? 

Natural wines also contain no or low sulfites, and if they are added, only to make them more shelf-stable and prevent overly-fast oxidisation. As opposed to the maximum allowed 350 parts per million (ppm) found in your conventional wine, no more than 100ppm of sulfites are present in natural wines. One can even look out for no-sulfite wines by the term “zero-zero,” for the absence of any preservatives. There is also a complete absence of flavour additives. Such things like fake oak flavour, additional sugar or acids are shunned. 

What's particularly notable, is that not even yeast is added. Conventional wine makers might use sulfites to kill off some naturally occurring yeast during the initial stages of winemaking, then add special strains of wine yeast in later stages. On the other hand, natural wine makers often don't add any yeast at all, relying on native yeast cultures found within the grapes or in the environment around grapes in a vat. 

While such processes certainly limit the speed at which wines can be produced, it has also allowed winemakers to market their products with a degree more truthfulness than some wines out there. For example, minute amounts of egg white or isinglass(from gelatin) have been known to be used to clarify wines. While marketed as vegan, it is clearly not entirely so.

Of course, there's also the ecological aspect to it: natural wines are touted to be more environmentally-friendly than conventional wine producers.

Never mind the lack of chemical pollution and material waste, natural winemaking also helps lesser-known, native grape varietals thrive. Instead of going for varietals that are more popular on the market the increased growing of these native vines aid them in becoming more resistant to the effects of climate change.

Where Did It Come From?

In more recent times, the natural wine movement resurged in rural France, occurring when winemakers with the same additive-free beliefs formed a community in the late 1900s. Previously separated by both geography and opportunity, they now had a common cause.

In fact, one of the first organized, formal natural wine tastings was actually the La Dive Bouteille. Held in 1999, the event had only shy of 120 attendees, 15 of which were winemakers.

In the 2000s, natural wine importers like Lefcourt and Louis/Dressner began to ramp up exports internationally, gaining good ground in particular in the United States. 

Another one of the reasons compounding it's resurgence is also believed to be the increase in health-centric mindsets of a newer-generation of consumers. With more eyes on what they put in their bodies, it was only a logical next step that wine-drinkers would return to the eco-friendly roots of winemaking all those years ago.

So How Does It Taste?

Natural wines often have rather distinct taste profiles compared to traditional wines, largely due to the minimal intervention approach in both grape cultivation and winemaking.

The general consensus is that they are usually dry, crisp and fruity, and can be funky, earthy, almost always with a noticeable tanginess but occasionally very sour due to the natural fermentation process which leads to higher acidity levels. Cloudiness is common due to its unfiltered nature, while such wines boast a much more prominent level of sedimentation. While oak barrels are commonly used in traditional winemaking to impart flavours of vanilla, spice, and toast, these notes are often less pronounced in natural wines which follow a more minimalist approach to allow the grape's natural flavours to shine through.

Natural wines might also seem exceptionally "light" to a wine drinker that's been drinking heavier bodied conventional wines for quite some time. Some such wines have even been likened to fruit juice with a kick ("electrified", if you will).

How to Identify Natural Wines?

As mentioned, the lack of regulations and designated titles makes it hard for natural wines to be identified at a glance. For starters, one can look for terms like "minimal intervention," "raw," "sulfide free" and "unfiltered" on the label. After all, producers of natural wines tend to be proud of their work, and won't be hiding the status from consumers.

Aside from the characteristic cloudiness and sedimentation, you can also look for a small biodynamic logo on the label! Of course, a little extra research won't hurt, so feel free to look up the producer and check out their philosophies and practices! 

Lok Bing Hong A budding journalist that loves experiencing new things and telling people's stories. I have 30 seconds of coherence a day. I do not decide when they come. They are not consecutive.