Natural wine is everywhere.
\nOn bar menus, in conversations and on shop shelves.<\/p>\n
But ask what it actually is and everyone will give you a different answer.<\/p>\n
Let’s clear it up.<\/p>\n
A natural wine is, essentially, fermented grapes and little else<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In Spain there is no legal definition or official label, but there is a fairly clear consensus among the people who make it:<\/p>\n The idea is that the glass shows the grape, the vintage and the place. It has official certification. The grapes are grown without synthetic chemicals, but quite a lot of intervention is allowed in the cellar: selected yeasts, corrections and sulphites (in smaller amounts than in conventional wine).<\/p>\n Goes a step further in the vineyard: it treats the estate as an ecosystem and follows the lunar calendar and natural preparations. It also has its own certifications.<\/p>\n Focuses on the cellar<\/strong>: minimal intervention throughout the process. Many natural wines are organic or biodynamic, even if the label doesn’t always say so.<\/p>\n In short: an organic wine isn’t necessarily natural. There’s no single “natural” taste. But some traits come up again and again:<\/p>\n Some natural wines are clean and precise, others wilder. The classics, but without corrections. Light, fresh, very drinkable.<\/p>\n White wines made like reds, with the skins left in during fermentation. More colour, more texture and notes of dried fruit and tea.<\/p>\n Sparkling wines from a single fermentation that finishes in the bottle. Softer bubbles, cheerful and very fruity.<\/p>\n Fresh, pale in colour, ideal with food.<\/p>\n\n
\nNo make-up.<\/p>\nNatural, organic and biodynamic: not the same thing<\/h2>\n
Organic wine<\/h3>\n
Biodynamic wine<\/h3>\n
Natural wine<\/h3>\n
\nAnd a natural wine almost always starts in an organic vineyard.<\/p>\nWhat natural wine tastes like<\/h2>\n
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\nThat’s why it helps to have someone guide you.<\/p>\nStyles you’ll come across<\/h2>\n
Low-intervention whites and reds<\/h3>\n
Skin-contact or orange wines<\/h3>\n
P\u00e9t-nat (ancestral method)<\/h3>\n
Ros\u00e9s and clarets<\/h3>\n
How to store and serve natural wine<\/h2>\n
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Where to buy natural wine in Barcelona<\/h2>\n