Natural wine vs regular wine: what's actually different

Natural wine is one of the most argued-about words on a wine list. Some people love its energy, its juiciness, even its cloudiness. Others think it is an excuse for faulty wine. Both camps are sometimes right. Here is what the word means, and how it compares with the wine most people drink.

The short answer: natural wine is wine made with as little intervention as possible: organic grapes picked by hand, fermented with wild yeasts, with nothing added and nothing taken away, except perhaps a little sulphite at bottling. Regular, or conventional, wine can use cultured yeasts, the additions and treatments its local wine law allows, filtration and more sulphites. Outside France, “natural” has no legal definition at all.

Side by side

Is there a legal definition?

In most countries, no: anyone can call a wine natural. France is the exception. Since 2020, a voluntary label called Vin Méthode Nature has been recognised by the French authorities. Its rules, as published by Anivin de France:

• 100% certified organic grapes, harvested by hand.
• Indigenous yeasts only.
• No additives and no techniques that change the make-up of the grape.
• Sulphites: two logos, one for no added sulphites and one for wines with up to 30 mg/L.
• Checks: random annual controls, on top of state inspections.

Organic and biodynamic are not the same as natural. They are certified ways of farming (and, for organic, rules for the cellar too). Natural wine is usually organic, but organic wine isn't automatically natural. See biodynamic wine explained.

Where natural wine came from

For most of history all wine was, in a sense, natural: the oldest traces of wine, about 8,000 years old, come from clay jars in Georgia (see wine started in clay pots). The modern movement started much later, in Beaujolais. From 1981, guided by the chemist and winemaker Jules Chauvet, Marcel Lapierre in Morgon began making his wine without added sulphur or yeast and farming his vines organically. Today his children run the domaine, and natural wine has its own bars, fairs and fans.

What natural wine tastes like

• Fresh, juicy fruit and often a lighter body.
• A hazy look, because nothing was fined or filtered out.
• Sometimes a slight fizz, from carbon dioxide kept in the wine.
• Sometimes funk: cider, yeast, a savoury, wild edge. A little can be charming.

Funk is not the same as a fault. Wines with little or no sulphite are more exposed to spoilage, and a good natural wine is still a clean one. Know the three faults to send back:

• Mousiness: a stale, cracker-like aftertaste that you notice after swallowing and that won't go away. The Australian Wine Research Institute notes it is more likely in wines with low sulphite and low acidity.
• Volatile acidity: vinegar or nail-polish remover on the nose.
• Brett: barnyard, sticking plaster, smoked meat. Some people tolerate a trace; a lot hides the fruit.

More on faults in can wine go bad?.

Is natural wine better for you?

Natural wine is still wine, with the same alcohol. Choose it because you like the taste and the people who make it, not as a health choice. If sulphites are your concern, read sulfite-free wine: what it really means.

How to buy a good one

• Buy from people who taste everything: a natural-wine shop or bar knows which bottles are clean and which are wild.
• Start with friendly styles: Gamay from Beaujolais, a pet-nat, or a skin-contact white such as Georgian orange wine.
• Keep it cool. Wines with little sulphite are more fragile. Don't leave them in a warm car or by the oven.
• Serve it a little cool, reds included, and give a hazy bottle a gentle pour.

In the end, pick natural wine for the same reason as any wine: because you love how it tastes and how it makes the evening feel. Sell the feeling, not the label.

Questions people ask