W
hen does making “natural” wine become a crime? In Italy,
of course, where craven bureaucrats are eager to jump
in the fray of the great wine labeling debate. Last July, Enoteca
Bulzoni, a highly esteemed Roman wine shop, was the unfortunate
recipient of newfound political targeting in the largely unregulated
business of “natural” wine. For the crime of displaying a sign that
reads “Natural Wine”, Roman agricultural authorities threatened
fines and criminal proceedings. It is a chilling reminder of the very
real world consequences of the passions on both sides of the natural
wine debate.
The term “natural wine” carries with it an implied confrontation.
Why, if some wine is natural, what is the alternative? Even worse,
natural wine advocates increasingly splinter, leaving bitter and
bitchy rivals. As the wine fair ViniVeri split from trade giant
VinItaly, so did VinNatur split from ViniVeri. Not to be outdone,
VinItaly now offers VinVit as their focus tent on natural wine.
Each has loyalists and detractors. The world of natural wine is so
fractured and polarized that it is easy to loose sight of how it began.
“Natural wine represents less than
1% of the world’s wine market and
yet it is always controversial.”
The Hangover
Behind tightly drawn eyelids, a coarsely over-brewed mug of
blackstrap coffee in hand, and a dull, rhythmic throbbing of the
temporal bone, the culprit is easy to spot. That hideous red wine,
often served in acetate cups at receptions and impromptu cotillions
is to blame. It contains sulfites, and as we know, sulfites
cause headaches.
Sulfur, the oft derided eau de Satan, is an absolutely essential
ingredient in winemaking. It is referenced by Homer and Pliny
and is now tightly controlled by the EU and must be labeled as an
ingredient to wine on US bottles in any amount above 10 parts per
million. Million. Moreover, even if winemakers elect to add (or not
add) sulfur, it still occurs as a byproduct of fermentation. So if sulfur
is as key an ingredient to wine as the yeast and sugar to make it, than
why the big fuss?
“In a wine world still dominated by
the 100-point score, natural wine is
the perfect counterpoint.”
fsmomaha.com
Natural wine fails to fall into one of the “us versus them” –
international versus regional, modern versus traditional, old world
versus the new world, interventionist versus non-interventionist.
Well, on the last one there is some disagreement.
Like the Slow Food movement that sprang-up as a reaction to
perceived excess in industrial agriculture, natural wine merely
broadened into organic viticulture. Organic vineyard management
led to an even more esoteric, homeopathic and holistic farming.
First developed in the 1920’s by an Austrian philosopher/mystic
named Rudolf Steiner, Biodynamics found rabid devotees in some
of the most traditional estates of Austria and Alsace. Steiner argued
that farmland was a single complex organism and that proper
treatment must coordinate lunar cycles, specific mineral and herbal
dilutions, and an awareness of the “cosmic” forces that affect
the soil.
Healthy soil leads to healthy vines. Though this ignores some of
the more outré aspects of Biodynamics, it has been hard to forego
at many of the world’s top estates. While some domaines, like the
august Nikolaihof in Austria’s Wachau, champion tight certification
by organizations like Demeter, many are simply quietly convert
due to what Perez-Palacios sees as enhanced “floral” qualities.
The fastidious vineyard practices are too mesmerizing for icons
like Domaine de la Romanée-Conti to ignore and prove that
Biodynamics have moved beyond the “kook” phase. Even Beaux
Frères, an Oregon winery co-owned by Robert Parker himself, is
Biodynamic.
Terrifying and bureaucratic certifying bodies (I was at Loimer in
Austria’s Kremstal when RESPEKT conducted its review in front
of a breathless vineyard manager) ensure organic and Biodynamics
must maneuver through mountains of paperwork to prove every
aspect of their farming complies with the regulations. Thus, growers
proudly include logos on their labels and gallantly announce their
approved wines to consumers. )M