Will be a mix of industry folks and assorted friends. I’d like to showcase the breadth and depth of what “natural wine” can mean to people, both from wineries that wouldn’t necessarily label themselves as such to those that enthusiastically would.
Please provide any suggestions you may have here!
To avoid too much squabbling about definitions, let’s cast a wide net:
Nothing added except SO2, so all native ferments, no fining, no other additives
New oak is OK, but I would like plenty of wines with none
Filtration is OK, but I would like unfiltered wines, too
I am including SO2 and filtration where needed because I am inviting people into my home and I don’t want to insult them by pouring mousy or Bretty wines. Please only recommend wines that you have personally experienced to be free of mouse and Brett. Some VA is fine.
I am particularly interested in global, non-Californian suggestions, since I have much more experience with local wines. Thanks everyone!
I could go on for pages and I am not even a big advocate or follower of the category.
A name that doesn’t pop up often or ever(?) here but goes back a long way in the history of this category is Massa Vecchia.
Basically if a winery can show their wines at RAW, I’m happy to call them natural wines. Excluding anything but no-SO2 extremists is plain dumb.
For example I’m happy to call Gonon St Joe a natural wine - to my understanding their vinification process is completely hands off with no inoculation, no filtration, no new oak and less than 50 mg/l SO2. Vineyards tended in an organic, sustainable fashion. Never see Gonon called out for a naturalist, but in my books they are!
Troon from Oregon - their vermentino skin contact and mourvedre (to mel, like a cru Beaujolais!) were really interesting and delicious expressions
Jos Wines - the two skin contact wines at the extreme ends; v extracted/tannic “broba”, clasically radikon-esque, but juicier and more lip smacking, and the spectacular “spring flower”, delicate, fresh, tiny tannic grip, perfect seafood wine but not dull by itself like so many wines with ‘cut’, just a really delightful quaff.
Chambers St, especially when David is selecting, has a pretty good history with being natural. They carried Gonon years before Kermit picked it up. I think it’s fair to call Gonon natural.
In California- Broc, Stagiaire, Ruth Lewandowski, Two Shepherds, Florez, Stirm, Les Lunes, Margins would be a real solid place to start for those specs.
My cellar is mainly low-intervention and unless they really really shine, they get the boot for mousiness or excessive VA. I like a little brett though. So these names are just ones I’ve gathered for years for being consistent.
De Moor, Claire Naudin, Domaine de la Tournelle, Tissot, Sansonniere, Bernaudeau, Jamet, Gonon, Foillard, Felton Road, Cailloux du Paradis, Cornelissen (Newer), Marnes Blanches, PJ Kuhn, Strohmeier,
