Top 10 wine trends of 2012 – part 6

The natural wine movement runs out of steam

A sell-out for the inaugural Natural Wine Fair in May, November’s Natural European Wines event in Switzerland, not to mention two books published on the subject (Naked Wine, by Alice Feiring and, more recently, Authentic Wine – Toward Natural and Sustainable Winemaking, by Jamie Goode and Sam Harrop MW): natural wines had no shortage of exposure over the course of 2011.

There are few subjects guaranteed to ignite an online forum so furiously, as sceptics, converts and the occasional moderate agnostic debate the merits of this movement.

In practice, however, it is difficult to get away from the commercial limitations of these wines. Even pioneers of biodynamic winemaking, which after all shares much common ground with natural wines, have distanced themselves from a creed which many feel promotes fundamentalist principles of non-interventional winemaking at the expense of quality and consistency.

Offering his own view on the movement, Christophe Ehrhart, managing director of Josmeyer and board member of both Biodyvin and Demeter, remarks: “I don’t know a producer making natural wines that he can sell all over the world, wines you can enjoy every day.”

Comparing the commercial scope of natural wines against biodynamic examples, he notes: “Natural wines can be great, but they’re small, small family wineries. When you have 10 hectares you can take this risk, but I sell to 40 countries. If I want to send my wines to Japan, I have to use sulphites.”

Ehrhart’s concern was backed up by Harrop, who stressed the need for “a certain level of consistency because otherwise we are distancing ourselves from the mass market.”

No doubt the natural wine debate will simmer on, backed up with popular events attended by a healthy clutch of curious consumers.

However, for all their value in making people question accepted approaches to winemaking, it is difficult to see these wines breaking beyond the outer fringes of the industry.