An Essay on Natural Wine...
A story by
Uršulė Simonaitytė
November 9th, 2023.
The first time I was introduced to the world of natural wine was when I got myself a job at this fine dining natural wine spot in Amsterdam. I worked at the front of the house, and at that point, I only had a tiny bit of experience with wines in general. I remember my first shift where I thought, ‘How hard could this really be?’ - to ask people which wine they prefer, to pour a glass for someone or name a grape or something... Now I think, ‘How naive of me to think that it was that simple.’...
So, imagine this: I’m running around in the chaotic, sweaty rush of a Friday night, trying not to mess up the queue of how the guests should be served, while the bar manager whispers the names of grapes into my ear like some kind of game of broken telephone - they last with me until I make it to the table and not a minute longer. I’m stressed, but I’m running on adrenaline, and all was somewhat perfectly balanced in the chaos until it wasn’t. My cheeks turned red as a STOP sign, and my hands started sweating profusely as I realized I had uttered something incredibly not ‘fine dining.’ When asked what the difference is between conventional and natural wine at an upscale restaurant specializing in the latter, my only response in the panic of the moment was - “it’s [just] different.”... What followed was the near-end of my very short career in the natural wine business, but luckily, here I am.
Beyond the rough start, the people working at this spot taught me the essence of natural wine. They taught me how much more fun and lively natural wine can be compared to conventional bottles, how it can become the only topic you’ll want to discuss at a dinner party, and how the product is vulnerable to mistakes and ever-changing. How the moment you open a bottle of natural wine is a bit of a gamble and how exciting that can be.
But this group of people also taught me to be radical, to ask for challenges, to only glorify funky wines, and to gossip about how boring people who order clean and soulless bottles of natural wine are. If you’re unfamiliar with the term ‘funky’ in the world of natural wine, I’ll explain: Natural wine is made with minimal to no intervention during the wine fermentation process, which means spontaneous fermentation happens, and what results is in the hands of the millions of naturally occurring microorganisms in the grape juices. So, as a result, sometimes, or to be honest, quite often, fermentation flaws happen, and then you get these farm-smelling, barn-like aromas, but also - thank god - such captivating and unique notes within the wine. And believe it or not, natural wine bars in Amsterdam are filled with these nasty, funky bottles of natural wine. It felt like I had entered the gates of wine heaven.
Then things took a turn when I moved to Lithuania to work with this wine importer, whom I assumed was a boring natural wine drinker because of his wine import choices… it was a big change from what I just described my reality to be like in Amsterdam. But then, some months passed, and it was clear that all this time I was only praising ‘mistakes’ - the faults that come with natural wine, which is quite funny because I’m really quite the perfectionist… I quickly realized that I wasn’t seeing beyond the ‘funkiness’; I didn’t even know what I was missing out on in the vast world of natural wine.
This wine importer showed me a new side of things when he introduced me to the storytelling behind this beautiful industry. He showed me that every winemaker has their own philosophy and the goal of natural wine is not to shock its customers with the dissonance between the aromas and pallet but to lead them through the journey in which they are engulfed in the terroir - all the factors which contribute to the creation of the wine. It presents the story, where the language is the tasting notes - what kind of sun and rain was present in that vineyard, what kind of imprint the soil composition left, and how vulnerability to take risks and strength in the bravery to be different are intertwined in this artisanal craft. This environment opened me up to other perspectives on natural wine, where I then started to believe that true winemakers are obligated to show the origin of the wine in the most transparent way possible and tell a story through its production.
Let’s fast forward to my separation from this wine importer and move towards my journey as a natural wine lady working at a local bistro. A week ago, I got back from this wine trip in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. My team from the bistro, our current wine importer, and I all traveled to meet local winemakers whose wines were already being sold and consumed from the shelves of our bistro in generous amounts… We also got lucky and met a few vintners from whom we wanted to buy some new bottles. I was feeling confident because, at this point, I’d been working in the industry for quite some time, and I had a pretty solid idea of what interested me. Now, guess if my understanding of the natural wine industry was shaken. Hell yeah, it was! During the first few meetings with these Italian natural winemakers, I was instantly humbled by how genuine and honest these people are. Each one of them was incredibly honest about why and how they practiced their wine-making. And, beyond this, they were also just such interesting people who had figured out the secrets of life, were dedicated and loyal, and were just insanely inspiring personalities. They were so much more than their wine labels and fermented grape juices. They were good people who believed in having respectful relationships with nature. Everything else just follows. There are no rules or agreements, just people and their delicious creativity served in a bottle of natural wine. Once again, I discovered a new realm within the world of natural wine, and it’s become clear to me that this isn’t going to stop happening anytime soon…
So, to make my way all the way back to where I started, maybe I was right in my first attempt at describing what makes natural wine so special; what exactly makes it stand out? My answer would still be that simple statement from the funky natural wine bar in Amsterdam - that ‘natural wine is [just] different’...
MANY THANKS TO THE
ISSUE 2 CONTRIBUTORS
KOKO FIGURA
ANNIE
VANESSA TORPEY
YVES BARTLETT & DA-JIONG DONG
MANY THANKS TO THE
ISSUE 1 CONTRIBUTORS
born out of post-sunday blues sugar hiccups and getting the memo
2024
2024