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Natural Wine – Fan Fad, Craze, or the Search for Something Else?
Over perhaps the past two and maybe three years, natural wine has become a topic of conversation among Sommeliers and Wholesalers. This topic has interestingly continued to expand and become dialogue in the industry. Some people are fans, others are not. The range of appreciation is similar to a polarized war of political debate; fans are rabid, decrying wines not made in the Natural way are all that is wrong with the world, meanwhile those who oppose this movement look at “Natural Wine” as a preposterous celebration of faulted wine, “it’s just a way for these new Somms (sommeliers) to shout about being different.”
So, in my ever curious search to listen to what other people are saying about a topic I am interested in, I saw this post from a wine shop in DC. Washington DC has a serious wine culture that isn’t limited to just the United States, with all of the international travelers in the area I think that if there is a place where this phenomenon can thrive and gain global momentum, this may be it…
Jeff Segal from Domestique writes:
What is natural wine?
“There’s no universal definition for natural wine. But here’s how we define it at Domestique: We only sell wines made from organic or biodynamic grapes, fermented with ambient yeasts and with very minimal use of sulfur, if any. [At] the end of the day, natural wine is essentially wine that hasn’t been made with pesticides and hasn’t been overly manipulated in the cellar.”
How does natural wine taste?
“Natural wine tastes like wine! There are a wide range of flavors and profiles, as with all wine. Many of them are classic wines from producers that have been making wine [the natural] way for a very long time. But natural wine is also more accepting, and at times, embracing of flavors that have become considered flaws as the wine world has become more industrialized and globalized. Some natural wines are cloudy, taste like cider or are texturally different. To us, natural wine just tastes more expressive.”
I agree with one of these two statements wholeheartedly, but the later I find confusing and still select to enjoy wines that are what I would rather refer to as Honest Wines. Wines that are made with all good intent to make varietally correct wine, that tastes like wine, that exhibits no faults and if it is made with a respect of the land, as many have been made for centuries, well, those are the wines I would rather like to tout.
Cheers!
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