Natural wine has a bit of a buzz going on at the minute. But what is it? And importantly how does it taste? Simply put natural wine is a very low intervention wine that is made by simply picking the grapes, crushing them and allowing the yeast present on the grapes and in the air ferment them. The result tastes more like a kombucha or sour beer than what we traditionally expect wine to taste like.
Decanter Magazine sums up Natural wine as follows:
• Vineyards farmed organically or biodynamically – certification was strongly preferred, but uncertified wines were accepted
• Hand-harvested only
• Fermentation with indigenous (wild) yeasts
• No enzymes
• No additives added (such as acid, tannin, colouring) other than SO2
• SO2 levels no higher than 70mg/l total
• Unfined, and no (or light) filtration
• No other heavy manipulation (such as spinning cone, reverse osmosis, cryoextraction, rapid-finishing, Ultraviolet C irradiation)
http://www.decanter.com/learn/advice/what-is-natural-wine-ask-decanter-368773/
But here’s the thing there is no official or regulated definition of natural wine. It is not defined and controlled like So, if someone says you’re drinking a natural wine, it technically doesn’t mean anything!
Is Natural Wine Better For You?
Without the use of sulfites or any other manipulation, people believe that natural wines are better for you. The problem is as above with out regulation this can be true in some cases and not in others. Firstly there is no evidence that sulfites cause wine headaches, blame the alcohol! Secondly SO2 that is used in wine is used in small amounts and helps the wine last longer, sulfite free wines spoil quicker and are more unstable due to not
having SO2 to sterilise the wine from impurities and may have funkier flavours as a result of these impurities.
We don’t currently stock any Natural wines but we do have Monte Zovo’s É Senza 2016, a wine made with out the addition of Sulfites. This wine is similar in style to a Valpolicella but has matured more rapidly, with more tertiary flavours developing in place of the bright cherry fruits. Very soft and enjoyable and worth trying if you wish to see what a low/no added sulfite wine tastes like.
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