People ask me this almost every week, usually holding a glass, usually a little unsure if there’s a wrong answer. There isn’t. But there is a real one, and I think it’s worth explaining properly rather than just putting “natural wine” on a label and hoping for the best.
It starts in the vineyard, not the cellar
If I had to pick one idea to leave you with, it’s this: natural wine is decided outside, long before anyone picks a single grape. It’s about how the land is farmed. No synthetic pesticides, no herbicides, no chasing bigger yields with chemical shortcuts. The vines have to cope with the season as it actually is, which some years is generous and some years is a real test of patience.
That matters more than people expect. A vineyard farmed this way develops its own resilience. The soil stays alive. The vines root deeper, looking for what they need instead of having it delivered to them. You end up with grapes that already taste like somewhere, before you’ve done anything to them at all.
Then it’s about restraint in the cellar
Once the fruit comes in, natural winemaking is really a story of doing less. We ferment with the wild yeasts already living on the grapes and in the cellar, rather than adding a cultured strain to guarantee a particular flavour profile. We never fine and don’t filter unless we really have to. We keep additions to an absolute minimum, and where we do use something like sulphur, it’s a small amount, used with care, not as a routine step.
The honest version of this is that it’s a bit more nerve-wracking. Wild ferments don’t always behave the way you’d like. You lose a bit of control. But you gain something else in return: a wine that tastes like it was actually grown somewhere, by someone, rather than assembled to a formula.
What it isn’t
Natural wine isn’t a synonym for “a bit odd” or “you have to be brave to drink it.” Done well, it should just taste like good wine, one that happens to be honest about how it was made. It also isn’t a marketing shortcut. Anyone can put the words on a bottle. What actually backs it up is the farming, the patience, and a willingness to let a wine be a little different from vintage to vintage, because that’s what happens when nature is genuinely allowed to do some of the work.
Natural doesn’t mean unpredictable
I want to be really clear about one thing, because it trips people up. Natural doesn’t mean inconsistent, and it certainly doesn’t mean unreliable. Every vintage will have its own personality, shaped by that year’s weather, but the quality and the care behind it stay exactly the same, bottle after bottle, year after year. We taste, we test, and we only put something in front of you when we are genuinely happy with it. You can trust what you’re getting, even as the specific character shifts slightly with the seasons. That’s the balance we’re always working towards: a wine that’s alive and honest, but never a gamble.
Why we make it this way
For us, this isn’t a trend we’ve jumped on. It’s simply the way we think wine, and land, should be treated. We want our vineyard to be in better condition in twenty years than it is today, and we want the wine in your glass to genuinely reflect the place it came from, not a laboratory decision made to smooth out the season’s differences.
If you’re curious to taste the difference for yourself, that’s really the best way to understand it. Come and see the vineyard, ask us anything you like while you’re here, and judge it in the glass rather than on the label. That’s always been the most honest test.
So, next time you’re holding a glass and wondering what “natural” really means, I hope this gives you a proper answer rather than a marketing one. And if you’ve got a question I haven’t covered here, ask us. Genuinely, we love talking about this stuff.
CONTACT
P: 027 358 3114
E: lucie@onaturel.co.nz
Au Naturel Ltd
52 Burn Cottage Road
Cromwell 9384, Central Otago
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