Making wine without chemicals and other processing techniques is slowly catching on here.
Do you prefer your beauty natural or shaped by plastic surgery to fit the current fashions? A growing number of wine drinkers and makers are choosing the natural option, attracted to what they regard as the more authentic and individual profile of wines made with minimal manipulation over homogenised and highly processed examples made for the mainstream market.
Recent years have seen a burgeoning natural wine scene, with France leading the charge in the vineyards, and popular bars and shops springing up in cities such as London, Paris, San Francisco and Tokyo. Last month I visited San Francisco's shrine to natural wine, Terroir, where co-owner Luc Ertor treated me to a tasting which reinforced my opinion that some of the most distinctive and exciting wines I've tried lately have been made naturally.
Those crafting natural wines try to intervene as little as possible in their making. Their grapes are grown without chemicals and very often without irrigation. These are allowed to ferment with wild yeasts, while many of the additives and techniques employed in conventional wineries are avoided.
Natural wine is not a term we hear much in New Zealand ... yet. But it's a philosophy that's starting to be embraced to different degrees. The country's Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand scheme has made conventional growers think about their chemical use, while our organics movement is rapidly expanding.
This winter also saw the formation of Marlborough Natural Winegrowers (Mana), a group formed by Fromm, Herzog, Huia, Seresin and Te Whare Ra, wineries united by a shared natural approach.
For Herzog's Therese Herzog, natural winegrowing goes a step beyond the organic viticulture all Mana members practise. "It includes the process of transforming the grapes into wine naturally," she explains, "without any additives other than the smallest amounts of sulphur, and by practicing a non-interventional approach and not using manipulations like micro-oxygenation, reverse-osmosis, and keeping the wine pure and unfiltered."
Sulphur, used as a preservative in wine and food and which causes allergies in some people, is kept to low or zero levels in natural wines. I've seen enough sulphur-free wines to convince me that in wines made with great care it's not always essential, but as its omission makes them more fragile and with the distances many New Zealand wines have to travel, it can be a risky business. However, for Herzog, "It's the amount that's used that makes the difference."
Just how much intervention is a good thing is a hotly debated topic. Innovations such as temperature-controlled fermentation have radically improved the quality of the wines we drink today, while chemicals are more controversial. The members of Mana take a pragmatic approach. "All that matters is the wine," stresses Fromm's Hatsch Kalberer. "If it needs sulphur I will use it. However, I have my own standards of wine integrity that are not to be compromised and don't need to be if the fruit harvested is of sound quality."
"If we didn't use cooling, sulphur and other 'interventions' in the making of our wines they would not be expressive of the variety or the site," notes Te Whare Ra's Anna Flowerday. "For us, quality and minimal intervention go hand in hand and one is not mutually exclusive."
Quality is the reason many are turning to more natural winemaking, and the fact it helps wines reflect the distinctive character of where they're from rather than the stamp of the winemaker and their oenologocal wizardry. "Anyone can grow grapes and make wine to a formula," says Seresin's M.J. Loza. "We want our wines to be truly expressive - that's one thing that makes them different, unique and special and using natural winegrowing practices helps us achieve that."
WINES WITH MANA
PURE AND PERFUMED
Huia Marlborough Gewurztraminer 2010 $24
Redolent of tuberose, spice and eau de cologne with grapefruit zest on the finish, this is a subtle and seductively silky textured gewurz made from this CarboNZero accredited estate. (From huia.net.nz.)
CHABLIS STYLE
Fromm La Strada Marlborough Chardonnay 2007 $32
A sleek and refined chardonnay which, with no oak, is similar in style to chablis. Creamy textured, it combines notes of hazelnut and mineral with a wonderfully fresh line of citrus. (From Village Winery, Fine Wine Delivery Company, Blend.)
AUSTRIAN ALTERNATIVE
Hans Herzog Marlborough Zweigelt 2009 $48-$53
While it's the most widely planted red grape variety in Austria, Herzog is one of the few growing it in this country. Theirs is a fresh, fragrant and velvety example, whose bright berry fruit is infused with aromatics of pepper, spice and florals and a note of bitter chocolate. (From Herzog Cellar door or mail order herzog.co.nz.)
