What is Natural Wine and Why Should You Care?

Since the United States Department of Agriculture’s Organic Food Production Act was updated under “the final rule” in 2002, U.S. organic cropland has grown from 750,000 acres to 4.9 million acres in 2021 (www.ers.usda.gov), lead by consumer demand for produce and meats grown without the use of harmful chemicals, like herbicides and pesticides, among others.

In relation to this, it’s not surprising that the production and sales of “natural wine” in the United States has also seen significant growth over the past 10 years.  But what exactly is natural wine?  While the USDA has hard and fast rules when it comes to the farming and selling practices of products labeled as “organic,” there are no such rules around the production and sale of natural wine. 

I get asked a lot about “natural wine", so I thought this would be a good forum to share what natural wine means to me and the processes and ethos I use in making my wines.

Organically Farmed Grapes

Since we purchased the Gold Dust Vineyard in 2020, we have farmed the property without the use of herbicides and pesticides, only employing light, organic, oil-based sprays during the growing season in order to keep the powdery mildew at bay.

“Right” Picking of the Fruit

Picking at lower sugar levels does a few things.  First and foremost, lower sugars mean lower pH (sorry to get all science-y here), which naturally protects the wine during the aging process. The combined with regularly topping my barrels, allows me to age the wine without sulfuring, something big, commercial wineries do regularly.  The second benefit of picking at lower sugar levels, lower pH; also means the juice has more acidity. Higher levels of acid (the French call it “freshness”) in the wine enhances the flavors of the food because acid stimulates the chemo receptors in your tongue, making you salivate, which bring more intense flavors out in your mouth.  

We chose our estate vineyard site because of the decomposed granitic soils.  The granite promotes high alkalinity in the soil, in turn, yielding lower pH, more acid, in the juice of the grapes.  This allows me to let the sugar levels rise to phenolic ripeness (yielding typicity or varietal correctness), while maintaining the naturally occurring acid that give the wines verve and structure.

Spontaneous (Native) Yeast Fermentation

Why does sourdough made in San Francisco taste better then other sourdoughs?  It’s the special yeast that are found naturally in the SF Bay Area that impart the unique flavors in a sourdough bread made with that native yeast.  Wine is the same way.  Naturally occurring yeast from different areas carry different characteristics and so when you ferment a wine spontaneously, with the yeasts that are naturally on the skins of the grapes, you get a true sense of place in the wines, unique to that specific region. 

Why does wine not taste like grape juice? It’s this magic interaction of the unique, native yeast, processing the natural sugars in the grapes and the various grape varieties and turning it into alcohol, which yield all of the special and unique flavors in wine.  These flavors can range widely from savory and herbaceous, to spicy, fruity, or salty, and even sometimes mineral.  It’s these unique characteristics given by different grape varieties, combined with the acid and (sometimes) tannin structure of the wine that make certain wines pair beautifully with different foods.

Neutral Aging

Oak barrels are typically used to age and mature wines because wood is porous, allowing a small amount of oxygen into the barrel and helping to move the wine along to maturity, rounding and smoothing out the rough edges of a youthful wine.  By aging my wines in neutral environments, such as old French Oak barrels or stainless steel, I’m allowing the wines to mature without imparting any oaky/woodsy flavors that are not naturally part of the wine making process and therefore preserving the purity of the beautiful (and magical!) flavors created by the natural fermentation process.

No Additional Chemicals, Additives, or Weird Stuff

The USDA has approved somewhere in the neighborhood of 72 chemicals and additives, which are regularly used in the production of commercial wines. Weird things like egg whites, fish bladders, copper, and volcanic ash are a regular additions to conventionally made wines, although you’d never know about it because wineries are not required to put their ingredients on their labels.  Do you or someone you know have immediate reactions to wines like headaches, allergies, or other aliments? This is likely not due to naturally occurring tannin or sulfites in wine, it’s likely a reaction to one of these chemicals additives you likely know nothing about.

My natural wines are made without the use of any of these chemicals or additives.  I use a tiny bit of sulfur (usually about 15 parts per million) before bottling the wines, in order to keep oxygen off the wines as I move them from barrel to pre-bottling blending tank and then from blending tank into bottle.  This process involves a lot of oxygen exposure, which can cause a wine to lose its vibrancy and freshness, so I add just enough to protect the wine for long-term aging in bottle.  As the small amount of sulfur I add is protecting the wine along this journey, it’s also chemically binding with the oxygen and dissipating.  Making natural wine is a lot of hard work, so my goal is to add just enough SO2 to protect the wine as I send it along its final journey into bottle.

No Fining or Filtration

Most wineries will fine and filter their wines for cosmetic (clear wine!) and stabilization purposes.  I used to do this as well.  The process generally involves pumping the wine through a series of 30-35 square filter pads, which, by the way, you need to wear a mask while loading them into the filtering unit, so the filter pad chemicals don’t damage your lungs.  The wine is sent through these filter pads coming out the other end into tank for resting prior to bottling. The process will clear up the wine, while striping out any remaining living yeast.  While this might provide the benefit of stabilization, the process also strips the naturally occurring yeast, antioxidants, and polyphenols, which give the wine more intense aromas, flavors, and mouthfeel.

When I started making natural wines in 2017, I noticed that the wines had more flavors and a silky-like viscosity, which lead seamlessly into the finish that I never experienced with wines that I made more conventionally. I was hooked and I knew that this method of making wine just felt right to me.

Humans have been making wine on this planet for thousands of years.  It’s not until the past few decades that we’ve felt the need to employ chemicals, additives, and filtration, over manipulating wines in the vineyard as well as in the cellar, in the name of making it look perfect and tasting uniform.  In the process, we’ve lost the idea of wine really is and what it is meant for, a naturally occurring food product meant to be enjoyed at the dinner table.

Wine enjoyed in moderation, just like anything else we consume, shouldn’t give you headaches, allergic reactions or make you sick.  This is the result of chemicals added in order to cut corners and increase margins.   

My goal in making natural wine on the other hand is to showcase a pure and natural expression of wine, crafted with intent and love, the way the Universe intended it to be made.