Natural wines article in NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/dinin ... ref=dining

Eric Asimov takes a look at the world of natural wines. Sure to create some interest here I think? I have always been unsure about the definition

Seems pretty even tempered! Thanks.

Saw this a few days ago. Really well done piece. I think I tend to side with the group that thinks "natural" wines are kind of a fallacy. Feiring and her ilk would have us all drinking stone age wines that most would consider undrinkable...

I don't agree with doctoring wines up too much, granted. But there are some things that you can do to a wine that are fine, such as fining with natural products (egg whites, isinglass) or adding sulfites for preservation (judiciously, of course). Adding tannin and acid to re-balance a wine is getting close to the limit of what I find acceptable - but again, if it makes for a better wine in the end, and it's not too heavy handed, I don't think I have a problem with it.

Also, seems like the natural wine movement is kind of shooting itself in the foot by not agreeing on anything.

Bob,

I have not read the Asimov article. However there was a great thread on Berserkers a while back on what makes a natural wine. Here is the link http://www.wineberserkers.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22819

I find this topic somewhat troubling as I really don't have a good understanding on where I stand on the topic. I would like to see things done naturally but in the end one has to admit that as soon as one trains a vine to a trellis its no longer natural so where do you draw a line. My understanding is that the natural wine supporters are only looking at the winery practices and not the vineyard so to me it seems to be coming in at the middle of the process. The movement seems to be saying that I can do whatever I want in the vineyard but I have to treat the fruit in only natural ways which seems to be to be contradictory as a philosophy.

To me it always comes back to taste. I want to taste the vintage differences and I want to taste the vineyard but it needs to be balanced and enjoyable and if its not then adjustments should be made.

A lot of heat and not much light. On the whole, in my experience, which is not the same as yours or anyone else's, winemakers who trust their vineyards and their yeasts make more interesting wine than those who don't. I didn't say better: I said more interesting. A wine may provide intellectual satisfaction without necessarily being pleasant to drink. And people who insist on seeing "organic" somewhere on the label are no better than people who insist on a label that bears a particular maker's name or brand.

And in any event, none of this matters compared to enjoyment: If you like a wine, no matter where or how it was made, that's the end of the story. Are we really prepared to say that wine must be moral to be enjoyed?

Brian, that thread on Beserkers ran to 4 pages. Must take a read again, plenty of enlightened souls post on that place, grin wink.

I would like to see things done naturally but in the end one has to admit that as soon as one trains a vine to a trellis its no longer natural so where do you draw a line.

Good, thought provoking article by Asimov. Brian's statement here is a truism. Wine is a man made product. Didn't Hoke in his Cahors thread report Michel Bettane saying something to the effect that the only natural wine is vinegar?

That said, I guess that most people here want wine with personality and a sense of place provided that it is free of off flavours and is capable of reasonable ageing. I don't think that many wine lovers are against organic methods in the vineyard and I think that makers of natural wines subscribe to these but without the certification.

It is at the wine-making stage where "natural" come into its own and where drawing the line becomes difficult. For me, acid, tannin and sugar adjustments are an intervention too far, although the last is hallowed by tradition in many French regions and great wines have been made with it for over a century. I don't want wines which turn into vinegar or cannot stand temperatures above 14°C but many of the world's finest wines show perceptible VA. So sensitive fining, filtering and sulphur use seems acceptable to me.

What about natural versus cultured yeasts? Ed Comstock argues passionately that brett obscures personality and sense of place and I think that its complete elimination rules out the use of natural yeasts. Others, including myself, consider that if brett comes with natural yeasts it is an input from the terroir; it small doses it can add an attractive dimension but it is a double edged sword because it can lead to the spoilage over time of many bottles for some drinkers if present in excess for them.

So there is no undisputed right answer. Production method does not play a big part in my wine buying decisions but I do notice that many of my favourite bottles come from organic and biodynamic vineyards and low intervention, if not necessarily "natural", winemakers.