If you have never heard of Natural Wine than you must be friend’s with the newest Geico Ad Pitchmen that live under a rock! The only real issue with Natural wine is – there is NO clear answer to the question – What is Natural Wine? If you want to know what kosher wine is – my posting and others clearly delineate the rules and laws that define kosher wine.

I loved the way that both Peter Hobbs and Eric Asimov described Natural Wines, simply stated, wine that is created with nothing added and nothing removed. Still, as simple as that sounds, no one talks about the actual rules inside the winery and no one talks about the rules outside the winery. Can you sulfate the vines, many say yes and many say no. Clearly you cannot sulfur the wine with SO2, as that would be adding to the wine.

However, throughout all the clamoring, some things come out loud and clear – natural wine is wine with all of its warts and beauty, with its romanticism, and with all of its nice and ugly sides. In other words, no matter how hard the romantics attempt to spin natural wine, it is still wine that can be great or horrible. I loved the descriptor used for one natural wine; burnt rubber and barn floor. Read the rest of this entry →