With natural wines, taste is the test.
The crisp clarity, earthy freshness and subtle richness of natural wines drive a glint of satisfaction from friends whenever I uncork a bottle from some wonderfully small vineyard tucked away down a country road in Arbois in the Jura or under the clouded, vertical terraces of Etna in southeastern Sicily.
But for all the wonder of natural wines and ties to traditional wine making, this is a hidden category, not easy to find nor marketed nor understood well. In New York, visionaries like Dan Lillie and Jamie Wolff of Chambers Street Wines and handful of others have been tasting and educating and selling these wines for a number of years to a growing but still small population of natural wine aficionados.
This is changing…and in New York, seemingly overnight.
And the change is coming from where wine shines to the broader wine loving population…in restaurants and bars paired with food.
On newly printed restaurant menus and drink lists, designations of ‘O’ for Organic, “B” for Biodynamic and the mysterious (to me) “S” for Sustainable are showing up everywhere. Definitions of what organic means may be squishy and waiters sheepish when pressed for information, but great natural wines are moving full blast into the food and beverage business. This is a tipping point for market appreciation that has long been coming.
I couldn’t be more delighted by this.
My take is there are two motivations for this…both working together.
Natural wine is food friendly by nature. Crisp with flavorful acidity. Unique tastes and soft finishes. And with lower alcohol content to sit ‘with’, not on top of the food. Natural wines are a true expression of place. A reflection of each particular vineyard so there are distinct, unique and seemingly endless pairings between food and individual wines. This is no longer, just have a Trousseau with that Israeli Hummus, there is a unique ability to paint by grape and place and vineyard and winemaker…and chef.
Local chefs in most every downtown neighborhood I visit have found new taste mates with their winemaking counterparts from France and Italy and Spain, with a sprinkling of new-to-me wines everywhere from Lebanon. Israel. From everywhere actually.
More subtle and less overt than the taste pairing of natural wines with fresh food, but key, is the ‘organic’ roots of the fruit–the grapes themselves. There is a dramatic move towards the healthy and natural in what we put on our skin, wash our hair with and certainly what we eat and drink. For myself, restaurants that have natural or local or organic food, prepared with an eye towards seasonal freshness and healthy components, along with scream-out-loud taste is what I want. Organic is not why you eat there. But it is certainly a bonus and the baseline for taste and talent of the chef’s to work with. The same is true for wine.
You pair wine with food for taste. But both wine and food, at their best and at their core are natural and healthy. Wine and food are tied at the hip because at their source, they are from the earth.
Wine of course, is complex…much more is involved than simply growing the grapes in a natural way. And there is some mushiness and much debate about what organic means for wine. Whether this applies to only what happens in the vineyard or the cave as well. Whether sulfites can be added. The importance of using only indigenous yeasts and whether chaptalization (adding sugar) to boost the alcohol content is ‘natural’ or not.
I agree that these categories are not perfect but I’m thrilled and optimistic that placing great natural wines in front of a larger wine and food-loving group is the right direction.
I’m less interested in perfection and more in progress. And seeing terrific natural wines from small artisanal vineyards in our local restaurants is a huge step forward for everyone. And a taste revolution whose time has finally arrived.
