Natural Wine and Organic Wine are hot topics in the wine industry in recent years. The difference and connection between the two also confuse many people. So, what is the difference between natural wines and organic wines and ordinary wines? What is the relationship between the two?
Organic Wine: Promoting Natural Farming
Let’s start with a comparison of organic wines. The so-called organic wine refers to the wine made by the winery of the organic Viticulture. That is to say, the definition of organic wines is mainly concentrated on “planting”—the vineyards must not use artificial chemicals such as fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides or fungicides.
The “organic” certification of many European countries is limited to the level of farming; in contrast, the definition of organic in some new world wine producing countries such as the United States and Australia also includes production and packaging.
In other words, after the organically grown grapes are harvested, the winemaker can still use additives, preservatives, etc., so we have the definition of “natural wine”.
Natural wine: no additives
As we all know, the wine industry has always relied heavily on various artificial additives. Everyone knows that winemakers will add sulphur dioxide to their wines to enhance their antioxidant properties. Sulfide is the best known wine additive. In addition, additives such as Gum arabic and Mega purple, which are legal and can improve the quality stability of wine, are also widely used in the wine making process.
Acacia gum is derived from the trunk exudate of the acacia tree of the leguminous family. It is widely used in the food industry and is a safe and harmless thickener. It helps to stabilize the flavor of the wine and also eases the dryness of the cheap wine. The taste of tannins.
The so-called “natural wine” is a wine made entirely of pure natural technology without any additives. However, this definition is actually somewhat vague, which is why the current definition of natural wines is still controversial.
However, from the current definition, natural wine is actually a wine that is organically grown without adding any artificial additives during the wine making process. Therefore, natural wines must be organic wines, but organic wines are not necessarily natural wines.
In addition to natural and organic wines, Biodynamics, which sounds more “tether”, is also a topic of interest to many people. The so-called biodynamic farming method is very close to organic farming – organic farming expects humans to stop all damage to the environment, while biodynamic farming methods focus on how to remedy the planting environment that has been destroyed for many years. That is to say, the biodynamic biodynamics cultivation method actually contains the concept of partial organic cultivation, but emphasizes the cooperation between human cultivation and natural materials as well as the astrological signs.
For consumers, whether it is organic, biodynamic or natural, they are not necessarily guaranteed to produce the best. In fact, because natural wines do not use additives at all, their winemaking stability is slightly lower than that of ordinary wines. In terms of taste, organic wines generally have little difference from ordinary wines, while natural wines tend to have unique tastes due to the use of natural yeast, and some even describe them as having the taste of sour beer. In addition, natural wines need an ideal wine storage environment and should be consumed within 1 year after purchase.
