REDRUM
Vinthropologist
Not sure if this should go here or 'general chit-chat', please move if necessary!
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Lately there has been a lot of talk about the so-called natural wine movement, which is, basically, a philosophy that suggests that wine should be made with as little 'manipulation' as possible by the winemaker.
This is in response to criticism of modern scientific winemaking practices as simply concocting a beverage to a recipe - trying to reverse-engineer a wine to bring it up to a certain standard rather than working in concert with what the grapes provide.
The premise is that if you have good grapes all the ingredients to make a good wine are already there (sugars, yeasts, tannins, acid) and that by adding stuff you are actually detracting from the 'natural' expression of the fruit and the terroir.
There's a lot of criticism about the use of the term 'natural', because obviously there is still a lot of human intervention that is needed ... from grape growing to harvest to ensuring clean fermentation conditions to deciding on timing of various stages. And people that call themselves 'natural winemakers' don't always agree as to the boundaries of natural wine. Some hardliners will not add sulphur at all as a preservative, others use 'minimal sulphur', but generally nothing else is added. Often the wines ferment for a long time (sometimes using techniques like carbonic maceration), and although they are racked they might be bottled without filtering and fining. Some will mature the wine in casks, others regard oaking as another unnatural addition and prefer to do everything in completely inert vessels.
The guy that is usually regarded as the father of modern natural wines was a Beaujolais chemist and winemaker, Jules Chauvert, whose general position was that sulphur could be added but ONLY if absolutely necessary... and likewise if there was a very problematic vintage the grapes might be corrected with acid or sugar, but only as a last resort.
I have had some absolutely incredible 'natural wines' with some very complex flavours (I have been told that by killing native yeasts with sulphur and re-inoculating with an isolated strand, you can lose a lot of the microbiotic complexity that adds interesting flavours and aromas to the wines), but I have also had some pretty ordinary ones (and oxidised ones, and ones which are just too funky for my tastes). Obviously it depends on a lot of things, first and foremost you need good quality grapes.
Generally I think that this sort of winemaking opens the door to a much broader spectrum of wine and encourages working with the wine rather than trying to make it fit a particular profile... but I also know that it requires closer attention because things can quite easily go wrong.
Interested in hearing peoples' views as to this sort of winemaking? Are there people here who strive to make wines like this? Personally I like the fact that this is the sort of winemaking that suits amateurs and small producers, because it is just not feasible to do on a large commercial scale, and you can get some really interesting and unique stuff.
EDIT: I've also read some fascinating stuff about the importance of microbial diversity in the 'ecosystems' of artisan cheeses produced using unpasteurised milk, etc .. don't know much about cheesemaking but the general ideas are the same as those applied to natural wines, it's the complexity of the microflora and fauna that lead to complexity of flavours and aromas in the wine/cheese. Same goes with those traditional Belgian wild-ferment ales.
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Lately there has been a lot of talk about the so-called natural wine movement, which is, basically, a philosophy that suggests that wine should be made with as little 'manipulation' as possible by the winemaker.
This is in response to criticism of modern scientific winemaking practices as simply concocting a beverage to a recipe - trying to reverse-engineer a wine to bring it up to a certain standard rather than working in concert with what the grapes provide.
The premise is that if you have good grapes all the ingredients to make a good wine are already there (sugars, yeasts, tannins, acid) and that by adding stuff you are actually detracting from the 'natural' expression of the fruit and the terroir.
There's a lot of criticism about the use of the term 'natural', because obviously there is still a lot of human intervention that is needed ... from grape growing to harvest to ensuring clean fermentation conditions to deciding on timing of various stages. And people that call themselves 'natural winemakers' don't always agree as to the boundaries of natural wine. Some hardliners will not add sulphur at all as a preservative, others use 'minimal sulphur', but generally nothing else is added. Often the wines ferment for a long time (sometimes using techniques like carbonic maceration), and although they are racked they might be bottled without filtering and fining. Some will mature the wine in casks, others regard oaking as another unnatural addition and prefer to do everything in completely inert vessels.
The guy that is usually regarded as the father of modern natural wines was a Beaujolais chemist and winemaker, Jules Chauvert, whose general position was that sulphur could be added but ONLY if absolutely necessary... and likewise if there was a very problematic vintage the grapes might be corrected with acid or sugar, but only as a last resort.
I have had some absolutely incredible 'natural wines' with some very complex flavours (I have been told that by killing native yeasts with sulphur and re-inoculating with an isolated strand, you can lose a lot of the microbiotic complexity that adds interesting flavours and aromas to the wines), but I have also had some pretty ordinary ones (and oxidised ones, and ones which are just too funky for my tastes). Obviously it depends on a lot of things, first and foremost you need good quality grapes.
Generally I think that this sort of winemaking opens the door to a much broader spectrum of wine and encourages working with the wine rather than trying to make it fit a particular profile... but I also know that it requires closer attention because things can quite easily go wrong.
Interested in hearing peoples' views as to this sort of winemaking? Are there people here who strive to make wines like this? Personally I like the fact that this is the sort of winemaking that suits amateurs and small producers, because it is just not feasible to do on a large commercial scale, and you can get some really interesting and unique stuff.
EDIT: I've also read some fascinating stuff about the importance of microbial diversity in the 'ecosystems' of artisan cheeses produced using unpasteurised milk, etc .. don't know much about cheesemaking but the general ideas are the same as those applied to natural wines, it's the complexity of the microflora and fauna that lead to complexity of flavours and aromas in the wine/cheese. Same goes with those traditional Belgian wild-ferment ales.
