Natural Wines

Saturday, July 15th
4:30 - 7:00

With this Saturday's tasting we are going to delve into one of the most polarizing topics within the wine community of the last few years - Natural Wines.  The Natural Wine movement has grown to be a major force with oenophiles, although there is a good bit of disagreement as to what exactly constitutes a 'Natural' wine.  In the strictest definition, Natural wines are those made in essentially the most ancient ways - you take grapes grown organically, press the juice from them and let that ferment.  That's it.  There are no additives at all, no chemicals of any kind, no yeast cultures, nothing at all - the wine making is as minimal as is possible.  Many of the hard core Natural Wine proponents also eschew more modern equipment, relying on older, traditional wine making tools.  Ok, cool, that all sounds great, so why is there disagreement over these wines?  Well, while some portions of the wine community enjoyed these wines immensely, other portions (while very much respecting the integrity of such wines) found that they tended to have faults and flaws which took away from their enjoyment.  Just because the wines might be more pure, did that necessarily make the wine taste better?  That, we believe, is the source of the polarization and confusion with Natural Wines.  Our position here at Hope Valley Wine & Beverage is that the start of the Natural Wine movement was understandably at its most rigorous - in creating a movement away from overly manipulated wines, the vanguard went to the most strict end of the spectrum.  That was a good number of years ago, and in the interim we believe that a good number of producers have found a bit more balance, and that there are many Natural Wines which to us adhere to the core principles of those first producers, while now allowing some use of the modern techniques and tools to avoid faults in the wine.  There are some wine lovers out there who will disagree with our take on the issue, and won't consider some of the wines we support as part of the Natural Wine as living up to the name.  Well, so be it, we'll agree to disagree on that.  This Saturday, however, you are welcome to come by and sample a number of wines which we feel fit the Natural Wine name - wines grown following at least Organic if not Biodynamic agriculture (whether certified or not),  wines made with minimal manipulation, but also with the knowledge that some small amount of natural additives can enhance and preserve the wine.  These are wines made striving to hold to the ideals of the ancient styles of vine growing and wine making, without being so pedantic that they confuse the least possible manipulation of the wine with zero manipulation of the process.

Jean-Paul Brun 'Terres Dorees' Beaujolais Blanc
Beaujolais, France, 2015

Isaac Cantalapiedra 'Cantayano' Verdejo
Castilla y León, Spain, 2015

Bernard Baudry 'Les Granges'
Chinon, France, 2015

Eric Texier 'Chat Fou'
Côtes du Rhône, France, 2014

Renardat-Fâche 'Cerdon du Bugey'
Bugey, France, 2016