The Battle Over Natural Wines

Q: What are natural wines and are they worth a try?

It’s complicated, and maybe.

It’s complicated because this topic has divided wine experts and even provoked verbal bomb-throwing among them. Robert Parker called natural wine a sham, a fraud and “vinofreakism.” Natural wine advocate Alice Feiring fired back by subtitling her next book “How I Saved the World From Parkerization.” It’s one of the most divisive subjects to rock the wine world in recent years.

Part of the problem is that no one can agree on what a natural wine is. Generally, it means wines made from grapes grown organically or biodynamically, and that the winemaker has not intervened drastically in the fermentation and aging process. Some prefer the term “low-intervention winemaking.” Such winemakers say that fermentation should be allowed to proceed rather than being forced or manipulated.

Most low-intervention winemakers follow a list of don’ts: Don’t add commercial yeast to crushed grapes; rather, allow ambient yeast to begin fermentation on its own time. Don’t use acid adjustments, yeast nutrients, wood chips, filtration, micro-oxygenation, fining agents to clarify wine, grape juice concentrate to deepen the color, reverse osmosis to reduce alcohol content, or new oak barrels.

All of the above are forbidden to natural winemakers, who say they are merely allowing the vine, vineyard and season to speak. But all are perfectly legal and also rather common in mass-produced wines with large production; even some top-drawer winemakers use a few techniques from the “don’t” list because they want their wines to be stable and predictable from vintage to vintage.

The key distinction between natural and other wines is the amount of sulfites added. Adding sulfites to crushed grapes once or twice after harvest is a common practice. In contrast, most winemakers who consider themselves low-intervention add a tiny amount only just before bottling.

All of the above make a big difference in how wine both looks and tastes. Natural white wines are often hazy from lack of filtration; the reds usually show sediment. Natural wines in general taste fresher, crisper and juicier. They show bright fruit flavors, not jammy or cooked, and are often mixed with spicy or funky notes that some love and others deplore. The lack of preservatives means that most natural wines are meant for near-term consumption.

Consumers who are ready for a bit of adventure should look for natural wines and try one. Whole Foods Market has a selection that they call Eco-Friendly Wines. At BevMo there is one shelf, but you have to ask because it’s unmarked. Some specialty wine shops make a point of stocking them: Esters in Santa Monica, Domaine LA and Silver Lake Wines, to name a few. There’s even a Raw Wine Fair coming to downtown LA in mid-November.

To its devotees, natural wine represents how wine should taste. To others, natural wines are funky, unstable and not serious enough for the cellar. But there is only one way to find out which side you are on: by tasting.