Natural Wine and the Quest for Authenticity: 5 Ways to Build A Better Natural Wine

"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than in all the books."

Is natural wine dead? So asks Alice Feiring in a recent New York Times article. How did natural wine get to the place where its preeminent advocate is questioning its vitality? And if it isn't quite dead, how can it be saved? Or should it be saved?

The rise of natural wine grew from positive values – wanting wines that reflected place and time rather than manipulated formulas, wanting wines that were free of mysterious and possibly harmful chemicals, wanting viticulture that respected, protected, and worked with the ecosystem rather than industrial agriculture that plowed it under and poisoned it. These are ideals we all can, and should, get behind.

The problem is that good values do not give you accurate information, and they often lead to self-righteous zeal.

Advocates of natural wine inevitably began using it as a pillar of virtue-signaling. It became an unfortunately short step from virtue-signaling natural wine enthusiast to wine style-nazi.

The vigorous and sometimes vehement natural wine clique is defined more by its enforcement of a style of wine that is considered to be “authentic,” rather than a values-driven definition. In its fetishizing of esoteric wine styles, the why of natural wine has all but been forgotten.

Now, in many people's mind, "natural" has become at best meaningless, or at worst a negative word. Half the time, a wine isn't "natural" unless it's flawed. And those of us who may dare to point out that the emperor wears no clothes are discounted as the dull, unenlightened sheep of industrial winemaking.

By drawing lines of authenticity between foot-stomping versus mechanically de-stemming, and between oak and clay, natural wine stopped being about what was "natural" and became about what was "correct." These kinds of natural wine doctrines are more of an insidious in-group style signaling and a kind of holier-than-thou one-upswomanship.

But if you scratch the surface of many of these tenets of the natural wine faith, you’ll find fallacy, contradiction, and, naturally, hypocrisy. Poke around the winery of just about any natural wine guru who celebrates ancient techniques and you’ll find a fair bit of plastic in use.

Perhaps the natural wine trend is flat-lining, but I’m not sure it needs to be resuscitated. I think we can build a new style of wine that is values-driven, rather than a fad created by style-nazis. (See my post Natural Wine Is Bullshit for more on this perspective.)

Here’s how. Perhaps the new wine should be called “True Wine:”

1. Require ingredients lists for all wine.

This should be an industry-wide change – revolution, actually. All wineries should be required to track and list every ingredient they add to their wines. The results would be stunning, and we’d quickly see patterns. We’d see who are the Häagen-Dazs® of wines, with less than 5 ingredients, all of which an average person might have in their fridge, and who are the, you know, MANY other ice creams, the ones that have unpronounceable ingredients and lots of them.

This is really the only test of authenticity. And it has the added benefit of putting that test in the consumer’s hands, rather than in the hands of self-appointed authenticity police. Until we give knowledge to everyone about what they are really drinking, how can we explain ourvalues?

If we made this one change, it would resolve every other issue (and you could ignore the rest of this list). You can read my post about this for a more in depth discussion of the importance of listing ingredients on wine.

2. Define True Wine in such a way that it allows the use of minimal ingredients.

If we want more people to share our positive wine values, start by making wine that tastes good.

Yes, there is some excellent natural wine. But there is also a significant percentage of it that is flawed by runaway bacterial and yeast blooms or unhealthy fermentations. Detectable levels of Bret, VA, and H2S are unpleasant for the majority of drinkers. I’m not saying the majority is right, but it’s not wrong.

I’d rather have the masses convert to loving wine grown organcially, than try to convince them to love wines that smell like sewage and taste like sour dirt.

Sulfites are one simple solution. Sulfites are necessary to protect the fruit flavors and aromas in wine, and to prevent spoilage aromas and flavors. And sulfites aren’t bad for you. In fact they occur naturally. Set a limit, sure, but let wine taste good.

Occasionally, organic yeast nutrients should be allowed as well. These mainly consist of vitamins and minerals (think of a daily multi-vitamin pill you might take) coupled with dead yeast cells. Almost all of these nutrients are used up by the living yeast during fermentation, and then settle out in the lees of the wine before bottling. They don't alter the flavor of the wine, are allowed in organic wine production, and they protect the fermentation from creating detectable levels of H2S (rotten eggs smell) when the grapes are low in the nutrients that yeast need.

In an ideal fermentation yeast nutrients won't be necessary. But if I had a choice of drinking a wine that smelled of rotten eggs versus one that used an organic multi-vitamin for the yeast, I'd take the latter.

I would argue that in the hierarchy of values, for the vast majority of wine consumers, "not tasting or smelling like shit" beats "didn't add an organic ingredient" every time.

3. Define True Wine by values, not style.

Oak is just as natural as clay. The value behind the amphora fanatics is minimalism– i.e. we want wine to express the vintage, the variety, the terroir, not the container it was aged in. Oak can be neutral, first of all. But it can also be an elegant, natural addition to a complex palate of flavors. Minimalism should be about restraint, not prohibition.

While I’m on the topic of restraint, how about using some in regards to acid? Wines that strip the enamel off your teeth aren’t for everyone. Highly acidic is a style, not a virtue. Let’s allow for a diversity of styles.

Remember that not everyone likes minimal oak, maximal acid, and low alcohol. Oak trees, fire, and very ripe grapes are quite natural, so they should be included in True Wine. A ripe, rich, concentrated, new-oak style is not unnatural, and some people love it. If it was made without the use of all kinds of chemicals, and if the grapes were grown in an organic, respectful, and holistic way, why not include it as wine to be celebrated?

4. Don’t try to claim health benefits of True Wine.

Any attempt to market a “healthier” wine is doomed to be determined B.S. at some point. Supporting a healthy environment is why we buy organic, because a healthy environment will lead to a healthier planet of people.

But don’t sell wine as a healthier form of beverage. It just leads to endless debate about health benefits vs. harmful effects of alcohol. That debate is beside the point.

The issue of whether I’m putting something unhealthy into my body is a sideline consideration. The real issue is that with every dollar I spend on wine I support the creation of the kind world in which we all live. I either support the creation of a world where the environment and food/water-source is poisoned by an agri-chemical industry, or I support a world where agriculture is protective, restorative, and integrated into a living ecosystem, where chemgro corporations wither, not native floras.

5. Have some humility.

People’s tastes are subjective, and not everyone likes the same kind of wine. Accept that a high-alcohol, 20-month-oaked Napa Cab, mechanically de-stemmed and pressed, can be just as natural as an obscure carbonic pet-nat orange wine. There shouldn’t be a right and wrong style to be natural if you define it well. If you love a foot-stomping, antique-shopping kind of wine making, great! In your effort to sell your wares, though, don’t over-step and start claiming it’s the only way to make good wine. Define “True Wine” with an emphasis on values, and let those values speak for themselves. You aren’t a better person for choosing to make or drink a certain style of wine.

The term "True Wine" may never catch on, but I hope the sanity of its principles do. I think natural wine, and all wine, will benefit from them.

If you enjoyed this article, please Join the Centralas Wine List - sign up below.