What is natural wine?
I came across a nice little conversation about natural wines this week and as much as I would have loved to copy and paste the whole thing on here, Facebook has made it impossible. As the definition of natural wines is a never ending debate, I thought I would highlight what I thought was the most important point.
The conversation was sparked by Guilhaume Gerard of Selection Massale when he asked, "wait, punchdowns and pump overs is not natural but carbonic maceration is?" There was a ruffle duffle, it lasted a little more than five minutes. Comments back and forth of all sorts, shapes and sizes, but in my humble opinion, I credit Guilhaume with the only undeniable truth or as we would say in Spain, una verdad como un castillo (truth as big as a castle):
I just think WE, the non winemakers, should shut the fuck up a little about what needs to be done or not in a vineyard or a cellar while we have, for most, a very limited understanding of what it takes to make a great wine, or even a good wine. This is why I like to think of ourselves (Cory and I) as non-interventionist importers. If we like the wines, really like them, there's nothing you can say that will stop us from wanting to import them. When you add your SO2 is not my problem, if, as a winemaker, your logic says "Before racking", "At crush" or "Just a bottling" who are we to judge? That you want, like Barouillet or Debize to "work" your wines through pumping, to soften them or make them more tannic, who are we to judge? We taste the finish product and decide to import it or not. The cool stories for the Parisians, we don't care so much for.
I'll be honest, I was amused and wanted to hear more. Seeing that comments started to slow down, I thought I would share the convo with some of the natural winemakers in Spain to hear what they had to say about the whole thing. Continuing along the same line as Guilhaume, I'm gonna pass the mic over to José Miguel Márquez who seemed as amused as I was. Translating is a bitch so I'm going to do my best to express the same way he did:
Hehe, the endless habit of defining what is natural and what is not. It's like spinning a ball, it doesn't have to stop if you don't want it to. It's great to have debates like this arise to see different points of view or doubts people may have, but the truth is only in the knowledge of who makes the wine and whoever drinks it can like it or not. In reality, there's not one way to make natural wine. The wonderful thing about natural wines lies in the myriad of forms, types of elaborations, and tastes which you can reach through honesty in what is done.
Now that I'm done playing telephone and relaying what others have to say, it's time to enjoy natural wine for what it's worth, regardless of how or by whom it was made. If it's good and I like it, I can always ask how it was made and the only thing left for me to do is sit there and nod.
Salud and so long...