Natural Wine 101: How Modern Bars Capitalize on Organic Vino

Natural wines prefer minimal processes for maximum benefit. Organic varieties and biodynamic wines offer the elegant simplicity offered by fewer sulfites, less synthetics, and no lack of authenticity. 

Unlike their more conventional relatives, natural wine promotes less as a value, paring down interruptions and interventions to the bare, essential needs of the wine experience. In this sense, the natural wine widens the sommelier’s concept of terroir with a more inclusive, eco-friendly beverage standard. 

As the organic movement gains popularity and buying power, natural wines demand vineyards and winemakers look at the quality of their grapes from a global standard. 

Key Takeaway: Potent antioxidants, guiltless production, local sourcing, and low-to-no additives—natural wine appeals to every flavor of the new consumer’s obsession with the healthy, holistic, and organic.

What is Natural Wine?

Bars and restaurateurs hear new values in this latest, bright-eyed wine trend. These organic, biodynamic wines have a simple message: “the best wine is grown to benefit everyone through fewer health risks, lower environmental costs, and, preferably, much less machinery in processing. 

Natural wines, holding themselves high with pride in their purity, have as few (if any) additives, sulfites, or pesticides as wine production can allow. Harvested by hand, natural wine fermentation relies on wild yeast without colors, flavors, or chemical stabilizers added. The only flavor is the rain and sun in wine regions that nurtures these vines.

Unfiltered and raw, natural wines prove their wholesome origins and organic quality through a conspicuously cloudy profile. After bottling, the barest wine with lowest intervention even has grape sediments at the very bottom—like gut-healthy and in-demand kombucha. 

Will Natural Wine Change Drink Standards?

Natural wine lacks a singular legal definition, but it overcomes this with crystal-clear priorities. The natural wine movement represents an exciting expression of changing attitudes. 

Society and its wine-drinking citizens are thinking differently about their approach to technology, modernity, and what it means to have refined taste. Three organizations have set more specific precedents for what natural wine is (or can be) in order to earn its high-cost and high-class organic title. 

• USDA Organic. The USDA can verify its organic quality, and it rigidly demands absolutely no sulfites (0 ppm, parts per million) and requires the grapes to grow certified organic, altered in no way by synthetic manipulations in production.
• EU Organic. This certification allows for very slight sulfite allowance under, or equal to, 100 parts per million. Few additives are allowed to earn the EU Organic stamp of approval, but the farming itself must be fully organic. 
• Demeter Biodynamic. One of the more interesting new titles of respect for wine and organics, Demeter demands production teams focus on biodiversity and cosmic rhythms (with sulfites under 70 parts per million).

After earning its "certified organic” seal, natural wines introduce a stimulating selection of unique wine species, including the cloudy and highly tactile wine with a surprisingly textured mouthfeel. There’s also the sour and polarizing funky and sour types. 

US and global markets also enjoy creative styles that resemble Japanese sake in production: strict with standards, naturally sparkling, and delicately yeast-fermented. 

Wine Spectator's Acclaimed Natural Wines

Despite their charm and continued rise, only a few natural wines have secured stand-out Wine Spectator acclaim. As tastes and time press forward, the industry is sure to see more respect for these more sustainable wines.

For now, Donkey & Goat deserves its praise on the Wine Spectator Index, earning an incredible 92 points. This result is great for any wine, but certainly impresses restaurants and winemakers who might not expect a natural wine to score above traditional vino in blind tastings. 

Radikon, grown and bottled in Italy, brought the other acclaimed natural wine and earned 90 points. Securing a place among the top-rated wines is not such a simple task, but as expectations, tastes, and standards change—we’re sure to see more.

Optimize Natural Wine Management with BinWise

BinWise empowers restaurants and bars with the right tools to take advantage of wine needs, selling trends, and organic inventories. With inventory tracking, tagging, and automations, you can more easily cultivate a compelling, natural wine list.

As inventory items, natural wines can be tracked with every unique attribute (like certifications, growing conditions, alcohol content, sulfite levels, and more). Flag your USDA Organics and let automated tracking send shelf-life alerts and ordering notifications to avoid spoilage or stockouts.

As you collect wines of more complex demands for terroir (the wine-growing environment), advanced analytics can help you spot trends across wine sales. Seeing cbd drinks, vegan cocktails, and other waves coming can optimize top-performing wine lists for streamlined operations and scaling revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions for Natural Wines

Natural wine puzzles many. Wine, it seems, is always a natural product (whether it’s grape-derived or palm wine). 

Explore the nuances of the natural wine craze with answers for how it might be healthier, bolder in taste, and more expensive from elevated expectations for quality.

Do natural wines cause fewer headaches and hangovers?

For some wine enthusiasts, lower sulfites will mean a lower rate or intensity of headaches, hangovers, and discomfort after enjoying a few glasses of natural wine. 

Although, this is not necessarily true for everyone (or in every case). While natural wines often carry fewer sulfites, well-known causes of “wine migraines,” other elements of natural wine, like amines, may still cause discomfort.

Is natural wine a healthy alternative to traditional alcohol?

Possibly. Natural wines contain fewer chemical additives and lab-made synthetics. 

As a result, they may be gentler on the human body compared to conventional wines. They are certainly less processed and more likely to have low (or no) hangover- and headache-causing sulfites. 

How do natural wines taste compared to regular wine?

Natural wines can seem bolder, more earthy, and similar to some brews of kombucha or sour beer. Not everyone will delight in these flavors, regardless of their sustainable mindset. 

For many, the unique taste profile of natural wine offers a unique twist and complement to sweet treats and everyday fare. Customers may be as interested in saving the planet as they are from slurping away dining boredom. 

Why is natural wine more expensive than others?

Natural wines tend to be more expensive because the category places more restrictions on production  (like small batches, reduced farm scale, and more manual labor). 

High-quality, natural wine will cost more to make and therefore command higher prices per bottle and glass—compared to anything-goes, “regular” blends. Some more affordable natural wines exist, but as a group alternatives with lower standards will tend to be cheaper.

‍