Natural wines, déjà vu

The world of the so-called natural wines has some very interesting and good wines as well as defective ones due to either inexperience, ignorance and/or conceit. 

Curiosity is what convinced me take part in an event dedicated to the so-called Natural Wines. I made a couple of phone calls and found someone who has been following these wines for some time and was thus up-to-date on this movement which for me is incomprehensible in regard to what it is all about and what its purpose is, considering that the name means nothing. Wine is not a natural product because it is made by man. In nature, if grapes are crushed and then left alone, we would be lucky if all that was produced was vinegar. Not wishing to be polemic, I went to the tasting with an open mind, thanks also to already knowing some of the participating estates that produced good wines.

Let the truth be told: I had a ball, finding myself catapulted into a reality that a couple of decades ago was the norm. The addresses made by some of the producers were old hat and this created a déjà vu, one after which I knew everything would return to normal. In a way it was kind of like the 2003 film Good Bye Lenin!

There were obviously some interesting and very good wines but also a lot to chuckle about. There was, for example, a woman producer of Sauvignon in Friuli who, on seeing the perplexed look on our faces after trying her wine, asked us what the problem was. When we replied that the bouquet did not identify the varietal her answer was that the problem was ours and that we were used to artificial wines that had been unmasked by investigators (something not true but that’s another story). It is a shame that the lady in question did not appear to know the wines of Dagenau, Cloud Bay or even those of Vie di Romans and Volpe Pasini. These are just a few examples of wines that have made Sauvignon history in Friuli and around the world. Fortunately, she was acquainted with Venica e Venica.

Another thing that stood out was how self-referential these producers were. Their wines sell well and are very expensive but the consumer is not to know anything about how they were made. The reason for this, in their view, was that knowing about the varietals and the terroir was useless and passé because one needed to appreciate a wine for it being conceptionally separate from its relationship to alcohol. Thus they were natural phenomenon.

There were, however, also producers who were aware of their shortcomings. An example was a small Piedmont estate that produced some interesting wines that suffered a tad from volatile acidity. The young owner admitted this: “In effect, not controlling temperature during fermentation can create problems but we are trying to correct this because we cannot let details ruin a year of work in the vineyard”. This is a producer with a future.

All things considered, this is an ancient approach to winemaking and many are aware of the problems involved and even if there are some ‘cheats’, others are very professional and include those who are known and others who are not. Among the latter I would like to recommend a few estates. Cascina Fornace, in Piedmont, with its wine Viscà (17 euros) made from Nebbiolo grapes grown in the sandy soil of Roero. Then there are the Quantico Etna wines by enologist Pietro Di Giovanni and the interesting wines of Lazio producer Andrea Occhipinti.

The bottom line is simple: it is good that more attention is paid to the land with a greater sensibility towards the environment and a desire to produce wines that are better than those of the past. This being the case, then why not produce organic or biodynamic wines that are regulated by stricter production protocols? Furthermore, a term like ‘natural’, for which there are no official definitions, can be used as a fig leaf to cover up bad winemaking practices and/or poor wines.

One last gem. In reply to the question “what barrels do you use?”, the almost standard answer was “old barrels”. When I asked what wine they made using new barrels, the reply was: “I don’t use new barrels, I buy them used from so-and-so”. This because ‘so-and-so’, in their mind, always sells good barrels that can still be used. How naïve! And then they wonder why their wines smell like an old trunk.