Natural wine

Natural wine is wine made with as little chemical and technological intervention as possible, either in the way the grapes are grown or the way they are made into wine. The term is used to distinguish such wine from organic wine. Organic wine is organic in the sense of having been produced made from organically grown grapes, but it may be subject to technical manipulation in the winemaking process^[1].

Controversy

The concept of 'natural wine' is extremely controversial, particularly in the English-speaking world. Many critics reject it as misleading. There is no established certification body and the term has no legal status. Winemakers who describe themselves (or are described by others) as 'natural' often differ in what they consider to be an acceptable level of intervention.

Requirements

Most definitions of natural wine include some or all of the following :

Hand-picked, organically or biodynamically grown grapes.
Low-yielding vineyards.
No added sugars, no foreign yeasts.
No fining or filtration
No adjustments for acidity.
No other additives for mouth-feel, colour, etc.
No micro-oxygenation or reverse osmosis.
Little or no added sulphite.

References

^ Breton, Félicien: Organic wines

Bibliography

Real Wine by Patrick Matthews, ISBN 1-84000-257-3. Patrick Matthews studied naturalness and authenticity of wines through the eyes of the Californian wine industry.