11 December 2020
Natural wine encapsulates wine made from organically and biodynamically grown grapes – by winemakers working with naturally occurring native yeast – adding and taking away little throughout the winemaking process.
All natural wine begins in the vineyard with sustainably farmed fruit. Some winemakers dogmatically believe in an all-or-nothing approach when it comes to producing wine “naturally,” taking what is known as a zero/zero approach, meaning absolutely nothing is added nor subtracted throughout the winemaking process. Other winemakers are more loosely inspired by the natural wine movement, choosing to cherry pick practices like biodynamic and regenerative farming, spontaneous fermentation instead of inoculation, and very few additions in the cellar besides sulfur.
Over the past decade or so, natural wine has begun to catch on in a big way, with a growing portion of the wine drinking world falling for the liveliness and unique characteristics of natural bottles and new and exciting wine projects popping up throughout California and the rest of the world. Despite a relative dearth of winemakers working in a natural style in Sonoma Valley, this region happens to be home to some of the most renowned and longest-operating natural winemakers in the country.
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