![]() The special thing about natural wines is that they contain no additives whatsoever. There are over 72 legal additives allowed in winemaking and many of them end up in conventional wine. Some have compared it to the sour notes of cider, or kombucha. It’s normal for wine to be described as “sour” or having a “funky aroma”. In stores, look for phrases like “minimal intervention”, “natural winemaking techniques” and “unfined/unfiltered.” Natural wine is made from grapes not sprayed with pesticides or herbicides, and are handpicked instead of being harvested by machines. What is the difference between natural wine and regular wine? Let’s set up a fun session to taste and purchase Sans Wine Co., premium canned natural wines from California. If you’d like to taste with me, virtually or in person, email me at. If you’re looking to learn more about natural wine, check out The Wine Zine, a bi-annual publication about natural wine culture. For a shameless plug, follow or DM me on Instagram I’ll be happy to point you to the winemakers or shops in your area. If they look at you stunned or lost for words, you may have to keep searching. Ask your local wine shops or wineries if they have natural wine, wines made with native yeast fermentation or minimal/low intervention wines. There are natural wine shops and bars popping up everywhere, and e-commerce has exponentially grown. As the old saying goes, we pick our poison. Is natural wine better for you? I wouldn’t say any alcoholic beverage is necessarily healthy, but making informed choices is a luxury available to us. At the end of the bottle, wine is wine, and it is an alcoholic beverage. That being said, we all start somewhere, and I thank you for reading to this point. It comes down to our personal interest to seek it out. There is a ton of wine out there, but also a ton of information. Organic wines or wines made with organically grown grapes may start the same as natural wines, but go through a conventional winemaking process in the cellar.Īs consumers, we are marketed with fancy tasting rooms, beautiful labels, and bursting grocery store shelves. The FDA has approved over 60 additives for winemaking, which are not required to be disclosed on labels. On the flip side, regular or conventional wine does not require organically grown grapes, commercial yeast is typically added to start fermentation and winemakers make adjustments to the wines by way of additives. What does non-natural, conventional winemaking look like? Think everything from whimsical, memory-inducing notes to familiar palate-pleasing sensations. The resulting taste is wine with multilayered flavors, character, and life. Instead, you end up with sometimes cloudy, yet vivid hues and floating sediment. Chemicals are not added to fine, filter or clarify the wines. With only the naturally occurring yeasts on the fruit to kick off fermentation, the grapes undergo natural yeast fermentation, also known as “wild yeast”, “indigenious yeast” or “native yeast” fermentation.Īdditions and adjustments are not made to improve the color, texture, or taste of the wine. In the cellar, fruit is called to freeform, and do its thing. Does this make me a true journalist of wine or a professional wine taster? I like to say both. ![]() ![]() How do I know this? After two years of driving all over California for vineyard, cellar, winery and tasting room visits (yes, they are different), I’ve found that there is nothing greater than the source itself. The above-mentioned process is all up to the natural winemaker’s style winemakers are the source, light and truth to knowing what is in your wines. To each their own, but I like to think of zero zero wines as a classification within the family of natural wines. What does this actually mean? Some may argue natural wines need to be “zero zero”, meaning nothing at all is added. Generally, these are wines made with organically or biodynamically farmed grapes, fermented with native yeasts (no commercial yeast added for fermentation), and the only addition in the cellar being a small amount of sulfur (SO2) at bottling. The term “natural wine” can be used interchangeably with the terms “minimal intervention wine” and “low intervention wine”. The wine industry likes to make things complicated. ![]()
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