Proponents of natural wine often brand themselves as the counterculture movement of the industry. It offers a path of rebellion to those who feel wine was co-opted by big agriculture, wealthy collectors, and stuffy sommeliers. Yet the concept of natural wine is nebulous. While intentions may be pure, for some, dogma has come at the cost of wine’s greatest purpose: to be drinkable. 

There is no legal framework for calling a wine “natural.” There isn’t even an agreed upon definition for the kind of wines that come under its purview. 

On the strict end of the spectrum, you have those who believe they are only made from grapes that have been farmed without the use of synthetic chemicals; are fermented spontaneously with wild yeasts; are produced in vessels that impart no flavor; and are touched as little as possible, with no additives, fining, filtering, or sulfur used throughout the winemaking process.

The issue here is that this definition dictates a set of procedures, or lack thereof, which are based on philosophy that can come at the expense of making sound wines. Making wine without sulfur or with grapes that are less than perfect has led to a prevalence of flaws. 

These range from bacterial mouse taint (literally, it tastes like a dirty mouse nest after the first sip) and volatile acidity (think nail polish remover), brettanomyces (a type of yeast that can present flavors like bandaid, barnyard, or poop) to premature oxidation (lacking fresh fruit, mushroom, tawny, rancio, or nuttiness). While everyone has a different tolerance for those flaws, and to each his own, many people feel, especially in excess, that they don’t have a place in quality wine. A quick fix for nearly all those issues: sulfur dioxide.

Toward the opposite side, you have those who think that all wine is natural, as it comes from an agricultural product. Even further than that are the naysayers, who say that the moment you plant a grape vine, or pick grapes to make wine from wild vines, you’ve inserted yourself into the process and it’s no longer a natural phenomenon, so natural wine in itself is a fallacy.

To the naysayers, I believe there is a long way between industrial, chemical-dependent agriculture and trying to farm while being as in tune with nature as possible. Conventionally made wine can use up to 150 chemicals in the U.S., legally. The only one that has to be named on the label is sulfur dioxide, which, oddly enough, is a byproduct of fermentation and exists in nearly every wine. (You can remove it, but that’s another invasive process). Additions of the natural compound are strictly limited in wine, falling well below the threshold in other consumable products, like orange juice, dried fruit, and canned fish.

All those chemicals, not to mention all of the high-tech gadgets that exist to assist in winemaking, are not used to make every conventional wine. But they are there to help force whatever fruit is picked into a consistent, predetermined style and flavor profile. This is the opposite of wines made to reflect their place and vintage, which taste different site to site and year to year, some better than others, and often more interesting than cookie-cutter wines. 

The less you intervene, the more the nuances have a chance to show themselves. Of course, this might not always be a good thing. If the fruit is flawed or the winemaking not properly hygienic, and you don’t adjust it, the wine will be flawed. 

So this is the dilemma of natural wine. You have to start with near-perfect fruit, which is very difficult to do, not to mention expensive. If you don’t have perfect fruit, when is it okay to intervene? Some sacrifice quality for dogma, while some do their best to buff out the flaws with a myriad of interventions.

For drinkers who crave a middle path, as I do, we can turn to those who have spent their career contemplating the subject, such as Pascaline Lepeltier. She’s a partner of Chambers Restaurant, the first female Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France – Sommellerie, Best French Sommelier 2018, and gave up her Master Sommelier title.

She has this to say on the subject: “Real natural wine is made from grapes farmed without synthetic chemical products in the respect of the environment of the vines and its holistic biodiversity, visible or not. This allows the grapes to be fermented with indigenous microbiota, to see a minimum amount of physical intervention as possible (and no chemical addition) and can use sulfur in very minimal amounts to ensure a stable wine.

“But the more I look into it, the more natural wine for me matters because of the way certain winemakers think about their relationship to all the ecosystems and not to use them but to preserve and regenerate them. Sulfur is a part of it, as natural wine allows also to create wines that may be more ‘easy’ to drink and share, also creating new social relationships.”

The reality is that natural wine is actually an ancient concept. Until the introduction of conventional farming and winemaking, farmers lived in harmony with their land. They cared for it — not just for themselves but for future generations, preserving and regenerating as a matter of survival, rather than principle. What is new is the return to the ways of old. Natural wine is just wine.