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14 October 2020

Are Natural Wines the Most Ethical and Sustainable?

Considering how much of the wine market natural wines actually accounts for, they are arguably getting more than their fair share of air time. However, for those dedicated winemakers who produce, support and promote natural wine that is the most responsible, environmentally-friendly way possible. Factors like that now mean much more to consumers. Every industry has its issues and topics, that no matter how often they are debated still polarise opinion and have as many supporters as they do detractors. 

In the wine industry the biggest divisive issue has to be natural wines. On the one side you have evangelists, the pioneers who are doing all that they can to eulogise, promote and share all they can about how and why natural wines are such an important and exciting part of the industry. Then there are those who just don’t get it. In fact the more popular natural wines become, the more opposed the anti-brigade seems to come.

One of the stumbling blocks some more traditional wine trade members have towards natural wine is how it is defined. Even at push, people can have a different way of defining what they meant when they talked about natural wine. 

For some, natural wine is a “wine that is living” that “is alive” and that “are framed organically at the very least”. Wines that are “100% grape juice”. Whereas others take a more practical view and look at natural wine as more of a “winemaking technique and procedure”.

A lot of the debate around natural wines ends up confusing the issue, when in the end what really matters is giving “tools to consumers to drink what they want”. Natural wine producers certainly don’t want to “tell consumers what they should be drinking”.

However, producers have a stronger message for the wine industry itself. The time has come for all producers to really question and analyse the kinds of wines that they are making. Not just in terms of the style of winemaking, but what is good for the local environment and the planet.

As a whole, winemaking needs to be taken more responsibly as an industry. What is going on in a vineyard, what is going on in a cellar. The first responsibility is to stop the misconception that wine is such a wonderful natural product. They need to be more open and transparent and give consumers the tools to understand.

Does it matter what we drink? We think it does. It matters for the health of the planet. We don’t just make wine. We are part of a farming world. We’re not just a bottle of wine that ends up on the bar or table.

It is believed that natural wines are the purest wine a winemaker can make as they truly reflect the place where they are made. When we taste wine we don’t look for oak, but for the vineyard and texture from the berry and the terroir.