'Natural wine' is the most contested term in the wine world. Some people think it means something precise and important. Others think it's marketing. Most people in between are simply confused about what they're ordering.
Here's the honest answer: it means different things depending on who's using it, but there is a coherent idea behind it — and it's worth understanding.
What 'natural wine' actually means
Unlike 'biological' or 'organic', 'natural wine' has no official legal definition in most countries. It's not a certification. It's a philosophy, applied with varying levels of rigour by producers who use it.
The core idea: wine made with as little intervention as possible, in the vineyard and in the cellar. In practice, this tends to mean:
- In the vineyard: no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilisers (often overlapping with organic or biodynamic farming)
- During fermentation: only wild (indigenous) yeasts, rather than commercial yeasts added by the winemaker
- During winemaking: no or minimal sulphite additions, no fining agents, no filtration
- No manipulation: no adding sugar, acid, or other additives to correct flavour or stability
The result, when done well, is a wine that genuinely expresses its place — the soil, the climate, the grape variety — without the winemaker's hand smoothing out the rough edges.
What it tastes like
This is where opinions divide. Natural wines can be extraordinary: alive, complex, with flavours and textures you won't find in conventionally made wine. They can also be faulty: volatile acidity (a vinegary note), mouse cage (a yeast-derived taint), excessive cloudiness, or instability in the bottle.
The honest version: natural winemaking is harder. The safety nets — commercial yeasts, sulphite additions, fining and filtration — exist because they produce consistent, stable results. Without them, a talented producer makes something brilliant; a less careful producer makes something undrinkable.
The best natural wines have a vitality and energy that's genuinely different from conventional wine. A slight haze, a more complex aroma, a texture that feels more alive. The worst are simply faulty, and no amount of philosophy changes that.
Natural wine vs biological wine: what's the difference?
Biological (organic) certification refers specifically to vineyard practices — what goes on with the vines and the soil. A wine can be certified organic and still use commercial yeasts, added sulphites, and commercial fining agents in the cellar. Many do.
Natural wine, to its proponents, extends the minimal-intervention philosophy into the cellar — but without a formal certification to back it up.
The wines from our producer Le Baite in Mansue sit at the intersection: certified biological (IT BIO 004), vegan, and made with minimal cellar intervention including no added sulphites. They are as close to the natural wine philosophy as you'll find, with the added rigour of independent certification.
Should you try natural wine?
Yes — but with a few caveats.
Don't try natural wine for the first time at a trendy wine bar when you don't know the producer. You might get something brilliant or something faulty, and you won't have a reference point to know which.
Do try it from producers you trust, where someone has done the curation for you. The wines from Le Baite in our collection are an excellent starting point: they have the character and honesty of natural wine, with the safety net of rigorous biological certification.
Start with the 137 CARMENERE — it's the clearest expression of what minimal-intervention winemaking can produce when the underlying farming is sound. Then try the MERLOT IGT Veneto for comparison. Two grapes, same philosophy, very different results. That's the conversation natural wine is trying to start.