Natural Wine

Natural wine. Does such a thing exist? Actually, no. At least if we think that natural is something that exists in nature and that was not created by man. In this sense, there are no natural wines, because they all exist by man's intervention. However, this nomenclature is allowed in cases where the intervention of man - the winemaker - is minimal. This is the so-called natural wine.

The question is not consensual. The most fundamentalists do not accept this nomenclature. And for that reason, alternatively, these wines have also been called 'wines of minimal intervention', which is actually more correct. For us here, it doesn't matter. The important thing is to know that this wine is really the greatest challenge of the winemaker, since there is no net that will hold us if something goes wrong in the production of this wine.

What is Natural Wine?

Natural wine is wine in which the only ingredient are the grapes, nothing else enters its composition. It is that wine in which the winemaker has only followed the transformation of the grapes into wine in order to obtain the most pure possible.

It is the ultimate expression of terroir, since there is no outside intervention. Only the winemaker's wisdom counts. And that makes this natural fermentation wine unique.

How is Natural Wine made?

Natural wine begins in the vineyard, it begins with the winegrower who in the vineyard is also minimalist in its intervention. Whether it is natural vinho verde, natural red wine, natural white wine, or even a natural sweet wine, it has to start in the vineyard and in the respect for its biodiversity. That is, a natural wine usually comes from organic and/or biodynamic viticulture.

The respect for biodiversity in the vineyard is essential in natural wine production, because that is where the wine will come from, from the indigenous yeasts and all the other microorganisms that also inhabit the vineyard.

In the winery it is produced in the same way as conventional wines, but what makes the difference is the minimal intervention, with the premise that nothing enters but the grapes, not even sulfur, also known as sulfites. This implies that even when the wine is done and ready to be bottled there is no human intervention, i.e. there is no fining or filtering, only bottling.

And so a wine is born that will behave like a living organism in the bottle and throughout the years of aging, until the time comes to open the bottle and enjoy.

Believe me, it will have a naturally special flavor.

Hélder Cunha

My life is the wine

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