Craft vs. Commodity: The Battle for the Soul of Winemaking
Natural Wine.
What is it? What’s the difference? Isn’t all wine natural? Minimal intervention? Low intervention? What are we talking about?
The term "natural wine" is problematic; ideally, all wine should be natural. It's just grape juice, right?
Well, almost! Between the 1980s and the 2000s, wine became a global market commodity, and with that came the opportunity for profit. Wine, like many other products, underwent a transformation driven by market demands and consumer preferences. It became standardized, safe, and easy, guided by focus groups. Unlike every product, certain standouts emerged. Wine is a lifestyle product, photogenic and marketable, leading publications to become influential consumer guides. Wine, as a product, is less like screws and more like fashion: “Sex sells; unfortunately, we sell wine (jeans),” as Diesel Jeans put it. The wine industry followed suit, producing what focus groups determined to be good wine, catering to market demands, losing some of the "just grapes" essence along the way.
To be clear, wine, in general, is not just grapes. Let’s call it industrial wine since it’s an industrial product. Industrial wine is exactly what you expect from it: consistent, error-free, and predictable year after year. However, don’t expect uniqueness or a true reflection of the grapes it was made from. Industrial wine follows the market's changing tastes, much like Coca-Cola, adapting its formula to consumer preferences. Influenced by Coca-Cola, wine became sweeter, especially as the beacons and market focus shifted from Europe to the USA, reflecting the sweeter palate shaped by soft drinks that became the norm. This isn’t necessarily bad – wine profiles can evolve too. And it did, with more jammy flavors, increasing alcohol, bolder notes of cinnamon, vanilla, coffee, cocoa, and caramel.
When grapes could not achieve these flavors, winemakers turned to barrels, barriques, micro-oxygenation - or micro-bulle, for those who saw Mondovino(2004) -, and other winemaking tricks. Filtering and clarifying with charcoal, adding enzymes, pigments, and other chemicals became common, neatly packaged and ready to mix in the wine. Industrial winemaking began to resemble baking, with winemakers with spreadsheets of analytical wine parameters on one hand and bags of additives on the other to achieve the desired results, far removed from traditional winemaking.
Correcting flaws became routine. Want a wine with Sauvignon Blanc hints? Need specific flavors? Just add selected yeasts and enzymes. Color not right? Add pigment. Too soft or too hard on the palate? Adjust tannins, sugar and acidity, alcohol, these can be added or removed. The process became more about mixing chemicals and using the right equipment, than celebrating the grape. Grapes? If wine could be made without grapes, it possibly would be. All legal and presumably safe, though concerns remain, just think about the ongoing use of glyphosate...
This industrial approach filled some pockets but sacrificed the uniqueness of entire wine regions. It became easier to produce a commodity than a craft product. Winemaking, a tough, risky, and often underpaid job, became more about following market trends than creating something unique. The "rock star" winemaker image is misleading; if a winemaker looks and talks like a rock star, be skeptical.
So, who can blame those who took the market route, minimized risks, and made a bit more money? After this global market dynamic, which trained palates worldwide to crave what the industry was selling, a cycle emerged. It was a cat-and-mouse game: producers responded to consumer demands, and consumers, in turn, were influenced by what producers offered. With only 10 or 20 grape varieties on labels, consumers could choose their favorite wine, regardless of whether it came from the Loire, Adelaide, or Napa, and know exactly what to expect.
Despite this, a counter-movement emerged from the margins, advocating for low-intervention or natural wine. Some see it as a return to craft and artistic winemaking with environmental consciousness; others view it as a rural movement that is challenging the industry. Whether seen as a counter-cultural movement, a return to artisanal methods, or an environmentally conscious approach, this movement values honesty above all.
Regardless of how you see the low intervention wine movement - also known as natural wine - the key unifying principle is honesty. Honesty. Honesty towards nature, grapes, winemaking, people, community, processes, the people enjoying the wine. Natural wine (naked wine) is about translating the essence of the place, the grapes, and the people into a bottle, without relying on additives and industrial techniques. It’s a rebellion against the homogenization of wine, seeking to preserve the authenticity and uniqueness of each vineyard, avoiding the overused term "terroir" that dominates industry jargon.
In 2014, this explanation might have sufficed, but in 2024, we must acknowledge that even natural wine has faced a fashion-driven approach. While most remain true to their principles, a few exploit expectations without genuine honesty, posing as authentic without truly adhering to its principles. But that’s a story for another time.