Where Did Natural Wine Come From? And What’s Next?
Depending on where you stand, natural wine is either the drink of choice for those in the know, or a trend on its last legs. A cloudy, colorful abomination or a path to environmental salvation. Fools gold or 24 carats.
And it's gone mainstream. You can’t pop a bottle of Champagne without hitting a natural wine bar in any major city, and most states. But it wasn’t always like this. The movements and people that gave birth to natural wine were counter-cultural. Learn about them below.
The Philosophies Behind Natural Wine
Natural wine is shrouded in mystery, mainly because there isn't a single organization that can define it. Popular wine fairs, high-brow publications, influential writers, and trailblazing winemakers each have their own idea of what natural wine is, adding fuel to the fire.
At Dedalus, our take is that the heart of natural winemaking is:
- Great farming, whether that's organic, biodynamic, or other sustainable practices.
- Minimal intervention in the cellar
- Native yeast fermentation
- Minimal sulfur at bottling
The ultimate goal of this approach is to create a wine that captures the essence of the land, the nuances of the climate, and the unique character of that particular vintage. When done well, wines made naturally have the uncanny ability to convey terroir.
Rudolf Steiner and Biodynamics: A Visionary Approach
In the 1920s, before natural wine took the world by storm, Rudolph Steiner pioneered the concept of biodynamic farming. The goal of this method is to create a self-sustaining agricultural system. Practitioners of biodynamics use:
- Crop rotation
- Livestock integration
- Adherence to the lunar calendar
- And the use of "preparations” – potent mixtures of fermented manure, herbs, and minerals
All of which increase soil fertility and vineyard biodiversity.
Many natural wines come from biodynamically farmed vineyards. But not every winemaker who farms biodynamically wants to be called "natural." Daniel Ravier at Domaine Tempier in Bandol and Marquis Guillaume D'Angerville of Domaine D'Angerville both practice biodynamic farming but don’t consider their wines “natural.” They're both revered estates, known for their classic wines, but prefer not to be confined by the trendiness of the natural wine movement.
Jules Chauvet and the Renaissance of Natural Wine
Steiner laid the groundwork for biodynamic farming, and Jules Chauvet’s furthered his influence on the natural wine movement with his experimentation. Jules was a negociant winemaker and chemist in Beaujolais who developed a new philosophy of winemaking around the mid-20th century. Chauvet believed that the insecticides and commercial yeasts that cropped up after WW2 had a negative impact on the quality of the wine. His approach called for a return to pre-industrial farming practices; a.k.a., no chemicals, and native yeast fermentation.
Chauvet made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of wine science, such as his study of malolactic fermentation, a process that softens acidity, creates complexity, and increases ageability in wines. He was also the first to research carbonic maceration, a technique that transformed the winemaking process, particularly for Beaujolais, resulting in fruity, fresh, and vibrant wines with lower tannin levels.
His research centered on yeasts, something that wasn’t widely understood at the time. Chauvet was an advocate for using indigenous yeasts present on the grape skins instead of commercial yeasts, believing that it led to more authentic, expressive wines.
He was a trailblazer, someone who pushed everyone around him to understand wine on a deeper level. His work eventually inspired a group of renegade winemakers in Beaujolais who we now call the Gang of Four.
The Gang of Four and the Modern Natural Wine Movement
Their names were Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, Jean Foillard, and Jean Paul-Thévenet. At the time that they took over their respective domaines in the 1970s and onward, Beaujolais' star had fallen. The region was synonymous with thin, cheap wine made for mass consumption. Most of the vineyards producing this stuff used those chemicals Chauvet had warned them against. So the Gang of Four took a different approach.
They stripped back their farming and winemaking and focused on making natural wines like their parents did before WW2. The results were so good that they inspired a generation of new winemakers to reconsider the use of chemicals and focus on creating more natural wine.
Mathieu and Camille Lapierre at their domaine in Beaujolais. Photo by Loic Terrier
The Modern Movement and its Flaws
Today, the natural wine movement is thriving. European wine fairs like Raw, Karakterre, and Viniesta have hopped across the Atlantic, a testament to the increased demand for natural wine from American wine lovers. But the category isn't without criticism. Natural wine's detractors view it as flawed, referencing cloudy bottles with colors, textures, and aromas that don’t fit in with the conventional ideas about what wine looks and tastes like.
And there are winemakers who worry about the damage caused by the trend-ification of natural wine. Jonathan Ross of Legend Imports thinks that the hype around the category is creating a rigid view of wine. “When a consumer talks about natural wine, for me, it shows it shows me some interest,” he says in an interview with Dedalus. “I think that the word ‘natural’ or the category ‘natural wine’ has done wine a service in that respect, but I think it's time for us to move beyond that label and have more nuanced conversations. ‘Natural wine’ has become “99 points," he says, referencing Robert Parker's wine scoring system.
To an extent, he’s right. If you ask someone to pick out the natural wine in a lineup of three wines, they’ll point to the cloudy one in a clear glass bottle, even if it’s shoulder to shoulder with a Lapierre Morgon. Why? Because that Morgon is in a traditional bottle, with a clean, scripted label. It looks like a classic wine, and therein lies a problem.
Natural wine can’t be pegged to a specific aesthetic. Remember the domaines we mentioned earlier, Tempier and D'Angerville? They might not call themselves natural, but they fit our definition of the word.
The Growth and Future of Natural Wine
The natural wine movement has come a long way, from the biodynamics of Rudolf Steiner to Jules Chauvet's revolutionary research on minimal intervention winemaking. The Gang of Four further propelled the natural wine movement with the help of American wine importer Kermit Lynch, who introduced their wines to a wider audience, solidifying their impact on the global wine scene.
As the popularity of "natty," "funky," and "crunchy" wines continues to soar, it's essential to remember the pioneers and visionaries who laid the groundwork for this thriving movement. At Dedalus, we want to shift our focus back to what's inside the bottle—to appreciate the craftsmanship of the winemakers who bring these unique expressions of terroir to life, and the innovators who paved the way.
