Naural Wine 3 years on

I see it’s now 3 years since the term natural wine has registered in my wine conscience and attending the Roquebrun Festival des vins naturel prompted me to reflect. Back then I more or less concluded “so what” given that most independent Languedoc growers were following practices upheld by the movement, especially in the area of organic/sustainable grape growing and minimal intervention in the winery.

Today, if I go to a natural wine fair, natural wine bar or just browse the vins naturel shelves of a caviste, I have expectations, at least in France (less so in the UK). Expressive young wines that dance around the senses perhaps playing with the limits of volatility and yeasty characteristics. Brett often features. Whites might be prickly, oak for reds will be less common and used lightly. The majority are best enjoyed relatively young.
B list grape varieties that are particularly low key on widely recognised characteristics will feature strongly. This is one area where natural wine makers excel; making interesting wines from the likes of Cinsault, Terret, Aligote, Gamey, Cot, Melon de Bourgogne etc.

I’ve also learnt that most “natural wines” are not made by zero SO2 fanatics with beards and sandals. Most growers are pragmatic and will, for example, add a dash of sulphur for wine destined for export. Others make “conventional” wines, but when conditions are right will bottle a modest cuvée sans SO2. Some bottlings will only be sold locally to reduce the risk of spoilage in transportation.

France vs UK emphasis

In the UK I’ve found the “definition” of natural wines to be a bit looser, possibly down to the dominance of marketers in a land where wine making is niche and hence lacks a winemaker driven movement. I've witnessed Organic and Biodynamic grape production used to make conventional wine branded as natural wine. In France a Bio wine fair has a different emphasis to a vins naturel one.

Road to an accepted norm?

I spent many years working in IT, an industry where new ideas and products emerged continuously. There is what observers call a "hype" cycle for new technology before it becomes mainstream. Take mobile phones. Initially they were hyped as the next big thing but then the first products were launched. They were seriously bulky, had a short battery life, offered no coverage and were expensive. Disillusion set in and the traditional telecoms companies continued to shun them. All these shortcomings melted away as the technology became ubiquitous rather than novel. The traditional telecoms invested heavily and made acquisitions to catch up.

Natural wine isn't an IT technology but some parallels with a "hype -> disillusionment -> enlightenment -> mainstream" cycle can be observed. There are still too many poor and overpriced examples that put consumers off, but know-how and standards are improving. Conventional wines are gradually using less sulphur and other additives. Significantly,  Languedoc negociant giant Gérard Bertrand now offers non-sulphured lines (stocked by Marks & Spencer in the UK) which signals a market for those who want or require such wine. A market beyond thrill seekers like me. Mainstream consumer acceptance may never fully happen, but this is a significant step. Arguably restaurant wine lists are the closest we have to broad acceptance with many serious lists featuring natural wines interspersed and indistinguishable from more convention offerings.

For me, “natural wines” have shaped a new style of wine to enjoy; up there with the “new world” invasion 30 years ago and my discovery of the Languedoc.

Festival des vins natures 4th edition Roquebrun

The marketing for this event is pretty specialised, seemingly through growers and cavistes. It was also spot on, buzzing not heaving and with nearly 200 seated for the long late lunch. Fewer were there earlier for the Balade vines to Domaine Marquise des Mures on the hillside above Roquebrun, an informative and pleasant prequel to the tasting. The setting, along the banks of the Orb in the shade of poplars, was idyllic.

General observations: -

• These were wines at the natural end of spectrum – organic vineyard standards, "wild" fermentations, no or minimal sulphur added
  
• The majority of growers come from less well known sites in their appellations. Cinsault and Terret were popular with most wines made way outside AOC regulations for grape variety percentages.
• Oaked reds less common or toned down while some whites had too much and/or were too young (2012).
• All wines leapt out of the glass showing their characters – no desperate glass swirling to coax closed wines
• No prices with little selling taking place
• Knowledgeable attendees
• High quality wines, only one I though was at the limit of VA and a couple were a bit too rustic, plus many of the 2012s on show needed longer to settle down in bottle.

Some highlights (from memory, nobody was making notes)

Les Temps des Cerises I recall having a red at the excellent restaurant Octopus in Béziers 6 or 7 years ago and it stands out as my first exposure to (as I can now associate) modern natural wine. Since then a couple of encounters have sadly seen volatile wine falling apart, perhaps down to poor storage by their guardians. These examples, especially the reds, had the vibrant freshness I would have expected from a wine made in the relatively cool upper Orb valley north of Bedarieux.

Far Ouest Mylène Bru is from the unfashionable (excepting Peyre Rose) Saint-Pargoire on the left bank of the Hérault. From Grenache, Carignan, Syrah with some Cinsault, Marselan and Tempranillo it's quite a rich full stlye and very Mediterranean without being heavy - clearly carefully made. At the more conventional end of the natural spectrum and none the worse for that. I was served a glass last year at the (now closed) Le Mimosa restaurant, so high praise indeed.

Domaine Yannick Pelletier Saint-Chinian. L'Oiselet (Cinsault) is another wine I've had in several restaurants including the aforementioned Octopus in Béziers. It always has a nice pure and structured cutting fruit and drinks well, as it did at the fair. l'engoulevent is more savoury and substantial (mainly Grenache, Carignan, Syrah) with lots going on under the surface. I found Coccigrues too oaky, especially in the context of lunch time in the open air.

La Fontude is a Domaine sited in the hills just to the west of Lake Saligou. I came across a bottle a few years ago but it didn't leave an impression. Clearly things have been refined as the "rouge" (Cinsault) was vibrant and delicious. The only disappointment was the 2006 Entremonde (Carignan, Aramon, Grenache, Cinsault) where the oak was still bullying the wine. Reusing the barrel made the younger vintages on show much more promising.

Domaine Ribiera. Last but not least the home team from my village. Régis Pichon was showing two whites, Y'a un terret (Terret) and Les Canilles (Rousanne) that were the whites of the show. Both 2011s, they had been in bottle a year and settled down. I found them the best whites on show. The Terret had a light racy crunch with attractive mouth feel while the Canilles is more aromatic but not at all heavy - fresh fennel and citrus peel.

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Home made grape juice (and natural wine)

One of the best alternatives to wine, especially at breakfast, is decent grape juice. It also goes brilliantly with muesli.

Inspired by a friend while picking grapes this is my version.

1. Pick some organic grapillons with the permission of the vigneron. Grenache or Carignan from Mas Gabriel are perfect. Grapillons are small bunches from later flowering and are less sweet than ripe bunches. More importantly, vignerons don't generally pick them as their unripe green tannins makes red wine bitter.




2. De-stem the grapes in a clean bowl. Fingers are good at this.

3. Blend the grapes in a blender. This is quick but aggressive - quite a few skin tannins will be extracted.
For a gentler approach try treading them with your feet.

4. Sieve into a bowl. The juice can then be bottled (used plastic mineral water bottles or similar are ideal) and stored in the fridge.

The remaining skins, pips and stalks can be spread on the vineyard, although technically they should be left in a designated place to be collected by the local distillery.

Note that following has not been attempted by the author.

To make a natural wine use ripe grapillons and after step 4 just allow the juice to ferment. You don't need to add anything else as I'm told it won't be natural, although bio yeast nutrients are acceptable. Using a closed glass fermentation vessel like a demijohn should reduce the risk of the fermentation going wrong.

The above makes deep rosé, although rosé from Carignan will look like red wine.

To make a deeper red wine wine delay step 4 by a couple of weeks but be careful not to over extract. For white try white grapillons. For sparkling wine simply use a pressure proof bottle and omit the fridge bit of step 4.

Bon chance.

I bought a wine book

A few months ago, while others indulged in retail therapy, I passed the time in a good sized bookshop - Waterstones in reasonably well healed Kingston-upon-Thames south west London. The food and drink section occupied extensive shelf space and yet the drinks bit was one meager short shelf, and of that barely half covered wine. I estimated food outdid wine by over 20 to 1. While memory plays tricks, I'm certain the ratio has shifted at the expense of wine books over the past 20 years to support the relative explosion in TV celebrity cookbook publications.

Having an interest in cooking and food, combined with a somewhat specialist (OK narrow) interest in wine then, for what it's worth, my home shelf ratio is about 5:1 in favour of food matters. The timeless nature of a good recipe or just the ideas on offer keep them on my shelves. Wine ages as do the people involved and, like restaurant guides, too many pass their shelf-life date or are superseded.

My latest purchase has nothing specific to do with the Language-Rousillon, indeed I've yet to find any credited reference to the region in the tome. Nevertheless, I thoroughly recommend Authentic Wine: Toward Natural and Sustainable Winemaking by Jamie Goode and Sam Harrop. It covers the approaches to viticulture and winery practices from a "what is natural" perspective by presenting the views of people involved supplemented by the scientific slant that Jamie brings. Co-author Sam Harrop MW was one of the founders of Rousillon's Domaine Matassa so has experience of the hands-on side of things. I particularly like the balanced coverage of biodynamic practices for example, Matassa being biodynamic must have helped.

For me, most of the topics covered reflect the choices made by the more serious independent producers in the region - including our vin naturel producing village neighbours. As a read it works exceptionally well as a book to dip into and should turn out to be as timeless as the best of my food books.

Vinotaure (a Bio Wine fair)

Vinotaure 2011 is a Salon des vins Bio et naturels organised by Epicuvin, who describe themselves as a club of wine and gastronomy lovers from Montpellier. Overall this was a slightly disappointing showcase for Bio wines. Several producers offered poor value and there were also too many underwhelming wines, an observation magnified by a few notable exceptions. That said, "regular" wine shows in France are just as variable, but if you're going to have a Bio/Natural Wine event they need to excel and differentiate themselves in the glass as well as on paper.

The event took place at a rather soulless resort complex the Résidence Domaine du Golf near Fabrègues east of Montpellier. A navigation check on Google Streetview reveals a scene of bulldozed terrain - that's how new this regimented village is. Fear not though, the spacious tasting hall turned out to be near ideal.

There were 17 producers billed, including 10 from the Languedoc and Roussillon. About the right number although the majority were showing five or more wines. It was also worryingly quiet on the Saturday and several producers understandably vacated their pitch for a early and long lunch. A few didn't even turn up, at least for the morning.

There were no new "discoveries" to report at producer level, but there were some interesting individual wines.

I enthused about the 2008 red from La Réserve d'O back in April. Equally impressive is the white (2009?) lovely balance, fresh, clean yet complex with hints of white flowers, fennel and preserved lemon. Unusual blend of Chenin, Grenache and Roussane grown at 400m above Arboras in the Terrasses du Larzac. Sanssoo is a play on Cinsault (but also has some Syrah) and never sees sulphur so is natural wine by any definition (La Réserve d'O is also biodynamic). Harmonious ripe red fruits and unusually fresh raspberries - a flavour and berry rare in the Languedoc. Along with Mas Gabriel they were the star attendees with wines I'd be happy to, and do, buy.

Mas Delmas is at Salses-le-Château just north of Perpignan. I found the whites more successful and the Marie Delmas Muscat Sec, a blend of Muscat de Petits Grains and often derided Alexadria, the most interesting. It combined aromatic grapeyness with a backbone of earthiness and grapefruit peel. Their reds disappointed - jammy sums them up.

Domaine Mămăruta just north of Fitou is relatively near Mas Delmas. A white from 70% Macabeu and 30% Carignan Blanc showed best - a nice balanced seafood wine with a pleasant acidic bite. Otherwise an oaked nutty Muscat was a bit too offbeat and another white just apples.

Stella-Nova at Caux (Pézenas) takes low sulphur seriously and their white Les Pléiades 2009 from mainly Grenache Blanc and Clairette was a fine effort - delicate yeasty eldeflower. The red Mira Ceti is zero sulphur and I just noted cider.

Mas Zenitude is sited in the hallowed Montpeyroux/St Jean de Fos patch of the Terrasses du Larzac. Audace 2009 is admirably pure Cinsault. Fresh, not heady, nice mouth feel and quite tasty. Vent d'Anges 2009 is a well made carignan - ripe, soft fruit with some classy smoke and tapenade. Only problem is the RPQ (15€ and 20€ respectively).

Domaine Turner Pageot at Gabian is just to the south of Faugères. I found their whites different and a very personal style. For example La Rupture 2009 is an oaked Sauvignon Blanc with plenty going on - coriander seeds, preserved lemon, resins and cats. I returned later to try the reds and left with an impression of fruit driven wines with an oak backbone.

In the 1990 I was an admirer of Domaine Henry (Saint Georges d'Orques) who were on an early wave of the region's rising stars. The reds were always an oaked style and my personal taste has moved on. Nevertheless, I was shocked at how inaccessably woody they were. In their defence they are food wines that need ageing, but cheap they are not. The wines also seemed totally out of character if one of the objectives of organic practices is to allow terroir to express itself.

I didn't taste Abbaye de Valmagne having drunk quite a few in the recent past and always finding them a bit overworked and short on character.

One out of region wine demanded a mention. Domaine du Picatier is a Côte Roannaise by the upper reaches of the Loire. They make a nice fresh Chardonnay, easy drinking Gamays and a delicious, balanced gourmandaise Pinot Noir 2009 Auver-Nat-Noir.

London's Natural Wine Fair

The Natural Wine Fair held recently at London’s Borough Market is not the first. Les Caves de Pyrène are at the forefront of “natural wine” promotion in the UK and have held annual trade tastings for some time. Things are starting to come of age and expansion has included four other importer/retail partners and a day devoted to paying consumers like me. It seems much of this is down to Isabelle Legeron, who is on a mission to raise awareness using her considerable communication talent. I wrote about her re-vamping of the Hibiscus restaurant wine list here, admittedly focusing on how a Michelin 2* London restaurant now lists as many Languedoc-Roussillon wines as it does Bordeaux.

Well over 100 growers were present or strongly represented with 500+ wines to tempt. It felt busy but never crowded with a great buzz as the day went on. The growers had plenty of time to engage and this did sabotage note taking. A master stoke, actually a Borough Market necessity, was to be outside and avoid booming wall syndrome. “Natural” psychology was at play.

19 growers from the Languedoc-Roussilon represented a sixth of the total and was right up there with recognised pioneers the Loire and Italy. There were no Bordeaux wineries. In the spectrum of natural wines pretty much everything was on offer, often from individual growers, but the majority I would class as independent producers trying to get the best expression from their patch. Well known Languedoc names heading on the organic path were there - Daumas Gassac, Aupilhac, Alain Chabanon (all Hérault valley) and Mas Bruguière (Pic Saint-Loup). At the wilder “modern rustic” end Fontédicto (Caux) and Clos Fantine (Faugères) proffered textbook examples.

My L-R discoveries included Domaine Ferrer-Ribière (Roussillon) for a sublime Grenache Blanc and wind swept Carignan. Mas Foulaquier (Pic Saint-Loup), actually a bit of a rediscovery, for delicious clean purity and freshness of the fruit. It was also good to taste the Clos du Gravillas (St Jean de Minervois) range, including the legendary Carignan and delicious minerally white L'Inattendu, wines I'd recently bought but have yet to broach.

Writing this I regret not tasting more L-R wines, but I need to get out more and so much from the Loire, Alsace, Beaujolais and Italy beckoned. As regions I encounter less often they brought home the contrast in styles and, with Beaujolais and Loire reds especially, how noticeably much less varietal they were.

Conclusions?

• These were essentially wines at the organic end of the spectrum from family scale growers in mainly "country regions" imported by five UK merchants. Calling them natural wines is getting them attention and that’s a great thing for small artisan producers everywhere.
• Grape varieties are less obvious and perhaps less important with these wines.
• I tasted/spitted some 50 wines. Normally my palate would be numb after half that number, but the minimal use of oak made all the difference. Yes, many will be too tannic for some, but I find grape tannins dissipate faster.
• There were no real duds except perhaps an Alsace Pinot Noir that really was too low key. Quite a few whites had an oxidative style that was countered by complexity. You either like them or don’t – our household is certainly divided.
• The fair needed more than a day. All three in fact. I didn't try any Rhone or South West tables.
• Last but not least it was a fantastic opportunity to meet so many caring passionate growers, something one takes for granted when on their own patch. Sadly, depersonalised wine fair really doesn’t have that ring about it.

Léon Barral Tradition 2007, naturally

Léon Barral is a Faugères name I've known for years but a wine I don't recall ever trying. If I had, it would have been more than a decade ago and obviously failed to leave an impression. Either way, I had a glass at a gathering of wine lovers at La Fromagerie South Kensington where the month's theme was, topically, natural wines (my observations on this subject are here). We each brought a bottle or two and of the 17 wines the red Léon Barral Tradition 2007 was my wine of the evening. Beautifully balanced with ripe damson acidity and fruit along with heathers and bonfire - straightforward yet not simple and seemingly at its peak.

It wasn't the most complex and layered red - that accolade goes to the warmer and weightier 2005 Domaine Viret Maréotis (Côtes du Rhône) I brought along having tasted it back in December (that post is here). A favourite of many of the imbibers, but the elegance of the Faugères won me over. Not surprisingly, the Faugères wasn't as cool, fresh and mineral as the 2008 Foillard Morgon Cotes du Py, a wine with a bit of a reputation as a hero of Beaujolais and natural wines - a reputation it lived up to.

Disappointing was 2007 Le Temps des Cerises Les Lendemains qui Chantent from just north of Bédarieux in the cool upper Orb valley. I had a bottle (earlier vintage) at Octopus in Beziers 5 years ago where I perceived it as a fun wine for warm weather. The sommelier decanted it and proceeded to shake the decanter violently - one reason why the memory stuck. It certainly divided opinions on our table of two. This bottle had nice tannins and some classy smoke, along with scrumpy cider yeasts and pear skin odours. Then after a while it was distinctly apply. Perhaps this is what observers coin as the wild end of the natural wine spectrum. There was a suggestion it hadn't travelled well - stability with such wines is an issue. Price is another, apparently 16€ at the cellar door and a disproportionate increase on the 22€ restaurant price in 2006.

This wasn't a France only tasting and I placed 2009 Cos Pithos Rosso (Sicily) up there with the Léon Barral Faugères, Viret Rhone and Foillard Morgon.

There's a lot to conclude. The wines certainly made for a convivial evening, for many this was a first look at the "style" beyond the odd bottle. There were two orange wines, "red" wine made from white grapes, that were nothing if not complex. The two whites were at the conventional end of the natural wine spectrum. Alas three were corked - maybe not statistically significant but worrying. Two or three had faults by most yardsticks; nail varnish and scrumpy cider character with the latter working very nicely on a pétillant Gaillac but not the reds please.

The wines continually evolved all evening and with hindsight decanting in advance would have helped. None of the wines were remotely reductive nor notably oaked. No headaches were reported the next day. None seemed to be a bargain, although at some 12€ on it's home patch I'll be seeking out the Léon Barral. Natural wines are a bit of a punt when it comes to bottle variation and deterioration. I suspect the skill of the grower/winemaker is magnified dramatically, something that was big back in the early 1980s before the pendulum swung the way of technological manipulation.

We finished with a 2007 Domaine Ribiera late harvest Grenache from just off the Herault valley north of Pezenas. The evening was well beyond note taking by then. All I can say is that the style is young vintage Maury, quite cherry with nice pure fruits and tannins.

Natural Wine

I first read about natural wine less than a year ago, but more recently the term just keeps cropping up. Unlike Bio and Biodynamic farming practices there aren’t any formal standards that define natural wine, it’s just a term coined by the media to describe a trend. The definition I like is 1) Grape growing to Bio or Biodynamic standard 2) No added yeast 3) No filtering or fining and minimal racking 4) No other additives such as sugar, tartaric acid and stabilisers including (the big one) sulphur.

Now I could fold my arms and state “so what” since all these practices have been a trend for many Languedoc vignerons for years even though they never seem to talk about «vin naturel». I find a great deal in common with the nouvelle cuisine fad coined by journalists to restaurant food in the 1970s. It was a move away from heavier usually overcooked dishes dominated by cream, butter and flour - techniques developed to make indifferent ingredients interesting. Many of France’s top chefs were cooking lighter, fresher last minute dishes where the flavours of local regional ingredients were allowed to shine. There are more than a few parallels here. Turning indifferent grapes into something drinkable is one. Then there is the contrast between international style wines that could come from anywhere vs. regional wines with the character and taste of the area (expressing the terroir). Natural wine making must be the way people originally made wine with the big difference being modern hygiene and equipment combined with global shared knowledge. Perhaps an extreme example of retro is fermentation in Amphoras (giant clay pots) - something one domaine in the Rhone is trying.

Going back to my “so what” stance I’ve checked details of domains I regularly imbibe. Of those where such info is available, most qualify as natural wine except in the yeast and sulphites department – by far the two riskiest aspects of natural wine production. I’ve heard of one small producer losing 20% of their vendage to a natural fermentation gone wrong. Nevertheless, many rely on indigenous yeasts such as, I quite quickly found, four top notch domains from the Terrasses du Larzac: Montcalmes, Mas Conscience, La Reserve d’O and La Terrasse d’Elise.

When it comes to the high-wire act of no added sulphur I’ve since discovered, following a cave and vines visit, that Ribiera in Aspiran is in that category (my October tasting notes, when I didn't know the wines were "natural", are here). A tasting of all ongoing cuves was fascinating. A barrel of 2007 Rousanne was at 15.5% and still fermenting (apparently it’s not like this every year). Oak is no longer used as it disguises expression, plus I suspect up front cost is an issue. Syrah is being phased out in favour of heat loving Cinsault and Grenache. More mysteriously, old Carignan has been grubbed up and that vineyard put up for sale. Bottled wines are kept in temperature regulated storage in Montpellier to ensure stability.

Returning to my nouvelle cuisine parallel, it was soon tarnished with a bad name as it was practised by chefs who jumped on a fad without the skills demanded by the style. It's also long dead when it comes to describing restaurant food today although, tellingly, all the principles are alive and well in contemporary dishes.

For now, I've made a New Years resolution to try some more extreme examples.

Fiona Beckett writes a great natural wines blog with plenty of links in her posts here Wine Naturally.