🍷 Natural wine
Also known as: natty wine, low-sulphur natural wine
Wine made with almost no intervention: native yeast, no additives and very little sulphur.
Natural wine is wine made with very little intervention. The grapes are grown without extra chemicals, the juice ferments on its own yeasts, almost nothing is added, and sulphur is very low or absent. The idea is that the wine shows the grapes and the year, not the winemaker's methods.
There is no single worldwide definition of such wine. Each producer understands it in their own way. In France there is a mark, Vin méthode nature, which allows up to 30 milligrams of sulphur per litre. This is much less than is usually allowed for mass-market wines.
So natural wines can be very different. They may be cloudy, unusual in taste, sometimes sparkling, like pét-nat. Some keep worse than ordinary wines, because there is little protection from oxidation.
Natural wine stands next to organic and biodynamic wine, wine without sulphites and the low-intervention approach. It is made in France, Italy, Georgia, Spain and other countries. Not everyone likes the taste, and it is a matter of habit.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Natural wine → kind of → 🌿 Organic and natural wines → kind of → 🍷 Types of wine → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Part of
- 🌿 Organic and natural wines
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ French wine, 🗺️ Italian wine, 🗺️ Georgian wine, 🗺️ Spanish wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Pét-nat, 🍷 Low-intervention wine, 🍷 Sulfite-free wine, 🍷 Organic wine, 🍷 Biodynamic wine, 🍷 Orange wine
Frequently asked questions
What is natural wine?
Wine made with minimal intervention: on its own yeasts, with no additives and very little sulphur.
Is there a precise definition of natural wine?
There is no single worldwide definition. In France the mark Vin méthode nature allows up to 30 mg/l of sulphur.
Is it true that natural wine is the same as organic wine?
No. Organic refers to how the grapes are grown, while natural also refers to how the wine is made: with almost no additives or intervention.
What to read next
- 🗺️ Italian wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grape varieties, appellations.
- 🍷 Organic wine — Wine made under EU organic rules from organically grown grapes, with lower sulphur dioxide limits than conventional wine.
- 🗺️ Georgian wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grapes and appellations.
- 🗺️ French wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grapes and appellations.
- 🗺️ Spanish wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grapes and appellations.
Similar
🍷 Organic wine · 🍷 Vegan wine · 🍷 Kosher wine · 🍷 Sacramental wine · 🍷 Amphora wine · 🍷 Doux
⚠️ Wine contains alcohol: adults only, drink in moderation. Wine usually contains sulphites; egg white or milk proteins are sometimes used for fining — important for allergies and for vegans.