A Day of Discovering the Human Choices Behind Natural Wine

LOST IN TRANSLATION: LIFE OF A JAPANESE GIRL IN ITALY

What does ‘natural’ actually mean in natural wine?

With this question in mind, I visited Augusta, a natural wine fair in Turin. Now in its fourth year, the event brings together producers and visitors from Italy and abroad. Alongside wine, there were beers, ciders, chocolates, and fresh bread. It felt more like a festival than a wine tasting. The charming illustrations by Gianluca Cannizzo set the tone.

Many visitors were stylishly dressed. Some greeted friends with a glass in hand, while others opened a bottle and enjoyed it with food on a bench. I felt that the wines people chose reflected their lifestyles and values.

Does ‘Natural’ Mean Doing Nothing?

We hear the term ‘natural wine’ so often, yet there is not a universally agreed definition. Generally, it refers to wine made from organically grown grapes, with additives and technological interventions kept to a minimum. But what is permitted, and to what extent, varies between organisations and producers. Natural wine overlaps with organic and biodynamic wine, particularly in grape growing, but the terms are not interchangeable.

Modern winemaking sometimes reminds me of cooking. It begins with grapes, followed by fermentation and ageing, with adjustments made to the flavour. It is almost as though the wine is gradually being ‘cooked’ to suit people's tastes.

I used to think of natural wine as an attempt to return to older ways of winemaking, avoiding excessive intervention and allowing the grapes to shine.

But I came to realise it was not as simple. People once did not just drink grapes, while today we ‘overcook’ them. 

Winemakers in the past lacked access to modern technology. Modern producers, however, know what technology can offer and make deliberate choices about what to use and what to leave out, from the vineyard to the winery.

Thinking about it this way, the question is no longer whether anything has been added. I want to know what kind of wine the producer hopes to make, and why they have chosen those particular methods. Even the decision to let nature take its course involves human judgement.

One thing I found really interesting at the fair was tasting three or four wines from the same producer. Even when the grape varieties differed, I sometimes noticed something familiar in their aromas.  Perhaps this came down to more than where the grapes were grown: it was also how they were fermented and aged. I wanted to ask the producers, but never quite managed to explore it properly.

Some winemakers value spontaneous fermentation to capture a place’s character. They see a connection to the land. Allowing native yeasts on the grapes and in the winery to drive the natural process of fermentation.

But I suspect there is more to it. Pressing times, vessel choices, and knowing when to intervene —or wait— all reveal a producer's tastes, experience, philosophy and habits. Choosing not to intervene is not the same as paying no attention.

Perhaps discovering these differences between these individual approaches is what makes natural wine so interesting.

When Does Funkiness Become a Fault?

Among the wines I tasted, certain aromas kept catching my attention. Some reminded me of the sulphurous smell of hot spring eggs, while others had a sharp, vinegar-like character. I realised that I had developed my own idea of what a ‘natural wine aroma’ should be.

Sometimes these smells were so strong I found the wines difficult to drink before I could begin to appreciate the differences between grapes or places.

These aromas do not all have the same cause. Hydrogen sulphide and other sulphur compounds may cause sulfurous smells like hot spring eggs, while acetic acid and other volatile acids create vinegar-like aromas. But I cannot identify the compounds by taste alone.

When talking about natural wine, I have encountered the idea that typical faults can sometimes be appreciated as individuality.

A conversation at a local wine bar stayed with me. The bartender admitted that some wines were simply too funky for him. But he also said that, for him, the best wines were those in which the producer understood the imperfections and had managed to bring everything together into a coherent whole.

Perhaps the same characteristic feels different depending on how it balances with other aromas and flavours. To judge a fault against individuality, I realised that I needed to taste the wine as a whole, rather than judge it by one aroma.

What Standards Tell Us, and What They Don't

For example, the Italian producers' association VinNatur sets out specific practices are permitted or prohibited in vineyards and wineries. These shared rules respect the character of the land and the grapes.

But I do not believe wines outside the natural wine category lack individuality. In Barolo and Barbaresco, differences between individual vineyard sites, known as crus, and vintages are also highly valued. Meanwhile, among the natural wines I tasted at the fair, some had strong fermentation-related aromas that made it difficult for me to recognise any differences in origin.

This made me think production standards tell us, first and foremost, how a wine was made. They do not guarantee that I will enjoy it or recognise the character of its origin.

I want to balance rules with my own taste.

Guides such as Slow Wine, the term ‘natural wine’, and restaurant ratings all operate differently. Yet I had been treating them all as sources of truth for a ‘good wine’. In reality, they evaluate and communicate different things. Understanding those differences helps us make our own choices.

The natural wine movement may also represent a form of resistance to established approaches to winemaking and wine evaluation.

But what exactly is it resisting? Tradition? The standardisation of flavours through industrial production? Or winemaking shaped by market demands?

Considering that some natural winemakers choose traditional methods, the idea of simply ‘going back to the past’ is not enough to explain their decisions.

What I want to understand is the kind of wine each producer is trying to create, and why they chose to work in that way. I want to look beyond the word ‘natural’ and pay attention to the actual practices and ideas behind it.

Starting with a Glass I Love

I think it is positive that the growing popularity of natural wine encourages people to take an interest in grape growing and winemaking. At the same time, natural wine can also be consumed as a trend.

The word ‘natural’ is no guarantee of flavour or quality. Making good wine while limiting additives and intervention requires knowledge and skill. And for those of us choosing wine, the word alone tells us little.

To be honest, I struggled to work out how to enjoy the fair.

The venue was crowded, and it was difficult to spend much time talking to the producers. I held out my glass, had some wine poured, tasted it, and moved on. As I repeated the process, the alcohol began to affect me before I understood the differences between the wines. By the time I left, I was exhausted.

Limiting additives such as sulphites does not mean a wine will leave you feeling less inebriated or tired. Of course, how much we drink and how we feel physically matter.

The experience made me appreciate enotecas and wine bars all over again. The person behind the counter selects wines, explains them and listens to our preferences. I realised this guidance and judgement are also part of what we pay for. Rather than trying hundreds of wines ourselves, we can begin with someone else's experience.

But I could have approached the fair the same way. I could have started by finding a glass that made me think, ‘I like this’, and allowed my curiosity about the producer to grow from there.

I did not need to understand everything from the beginning. After all, I had noticed things simply by tasting different wines side by side.

I went to taste natural wine, but what caught my attention was the human choices behind it.

Next time, when I find a wine I particularly enjoy, I will ask the producer why they chose to make it that way. By learning about their background and values, I hope to gradually discover what makes a good wine for me.

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