I CURRENTLY LIVE IN Richmond, Virginia. In the past couple of years, there has been a trend toward natural wines. They are everywhere: grocery store shelves, wine shops, and restaurants. It’s the latest fad. Like most fads, by the time it makes it to the south, most everyone else had already been enjoying the latest thing for a while. But before we get into what natural wines are, let’s start at the beginning.
Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced from grape juice via a process called fermentation. The oldest archaeological evidence of wine was discovered at a site in Georgia, a country that lies between eastern Europe and western Asia. This evidence dates to 8000 BCE. At that time, the wine making process was not understood. Basically, the altered consciousness produced by this newly discovered beverage was considered religious. The ancient Greeks worshipped Dionysus, the god of the grape-harvest, and ritual wines were consumed as part of Jewish religious practice since Biblical times and are an integral part of the eucharist commemorating the Last Supper. Wine production and consumption increased over time, redoubling significantly from the 15th century onwards as part of the European expansion. Despite the phylloxera devastation of 1887, science and technology adapted and the production and consumption of wine now takes place all over the world. For those unfamiliar with phylloxera, it is a louse that feeds on the roots of grape vines. In 1887, this louse completely annihilated most of the grape vines in Europe, crippling wine production there for years.
So, what is natural wine? Generally speaking, it’s a concept. There is no natural wine category with well-defined characteristics or agreed upon guidelines. It is basically wine made from untainted grape juice. These days, winemakers, distributors, sommeliers, and writers still take umbrage with the term natural wine. Personally, I just call it wine. Others prefer low-intervention wine, naked-wine or raw wine.
To understand what natural wine is requires a rudimentary understanding of the complex process of making wine. At its simplest, wine making is growing and picking grapes, and then turning those grapes into wine using fermentation. Natural wine is made by handpicking grapes that were not sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. The winemaker relies on native yeast, the yeast that lives in the air and eventually finds its way to the vats where the grape juice is stored. Additives such as flavoring, sugar, and acid are not used.
On occasion, sulfites are added as a preservative and stabilizer for the wine. This has been done for decades. It ensures that the wine will taste the way that it did when it was bottled. Natural winemakers use little if any sulfites, while conventional winemakers tend to use sulfites throughout the winemaking process. The use of sulfites doesn’t disqualify a bottle of wine from the natural wine category. Remember, this isn’t even a well-defined category with a set of guidelines to be followed to the letter.
A common misconception is that all-natural wines are cloudy, funky or inherently weird. While they aren’t filtered, leading to cloudiness, and can be funky, there are many that don’t require an acquired taste to enjoy. Some consider the funkiness a signal that the wine is somehow not clean. That’s definitely not an accurate assessment of these amazing wines.
Earlier, I mentioned that my quaint little town was once again late to the party. As I said, the natural wine craze began here just a few years ago. The natural wine movement actually began in the mid-1990’s in France when a small group of low-intervention winemakers who were working independently using organic winemaking practices discovered that they weren’t alone in their belief that wines could be better. They were using methods that harkened back to when their father’s fathers worked the land by hand without pesticides or additives. By 1999, they were organizing natural wine tastings in France. Not long afterwards, importers were bringing this style to the United States. More than a decade later, Richmond, Virginia was finally on the bandwagon. Better late than never, I suppose.
Lastly, let’s address the elephant in the room– sulfites. Do sulfites cause hangovers and are natural wines the best option if you want to reduce the chances of getting a hangover from drinking wine? There is no evidence, scientific or otherwise, that suggests that sulfites cause hangovers. This means that drinking natural wines will not reduce your chances of getting one. What is known is that a hangover is caused by ethanol alcohol. That’s the alcohol that’s in wine. It acts as a diuretic. That means it causes you to urinate more often when you consume alcohol, which causes dehydration. Dehydration causes headaches. So, when you’re drinking wine or any other alcoholic beverage, you should do yourself a favor and drink water as well. Studies on this topic have been done extensively by the Mayo Clinic, a highly respected medical organization recognized around the globe.
That’s the abridged story of natural wine. As I mentioned at the beginning, this isn’t a well-defined category and the rules for making natural wines aren’t written in stone or recognized by any governing body in any winemaking region. The concepts mirror the concepts used to make organic wine with more emphasis on low-intervention, no additives or filtering. Natural wines are quite interesting, but for the novice wine drinker, I’d tread lightly. These aren’t your aunts Pinot Grigios or Pinot Noirs. These wines have flavors and aromas that wine geeks love, but they aren’t for everyone. I’d suggest going to a natural wine tasting, so that you can experience them for yourself. Who knows? You may find a new favorite wine. Experience is the best teacher. Get out there and learn something.