NATURAL WINE It’s only natural: And the winner is… La Stoppa, Ageno, Emilia, the 31 wines Emilia-Romagna, Italy 2011 94 Simon Woolf 95 Andrew Jefford 95 Sarah Jane Evans MW 92 £24.10-£28 Exel, Hay Wines, Les Caves de Pyrene, Ottolenghi, Vini Italiani Who would have thought that a defiantly tannic orange wine made you need to try with 30 days of maceration would triumph in this tasting? Yet triumph it did, proving that Malvasia di Candia Aromatica (the 94 In a comprehensive and landmark tasting, Decanter’s expert panel blind ❦POINTS tasted 122 natural wines from all corners of the globe. Here they name dominant variety here) takes to skin contact like bees to a their top wine as well as 10 personal favourites, after Simon Woolf honeypot. La Stoppa’s 50-hectare organic estate in Emilia-Romagna has explains how we define this niche but exciting wine category been established for more than a century, with the enigmatic Elena Pantaleoni its grande dame for the past 23 years. She prefers the term ‘artisanal’ to the more nebulous ‘natural’ for her wines. THE TIme FOR denial or protest is over it, partly in an attempt to limit the growing network of fairs, merchants, – we can safely retire that old adverse effects of their sometimes wine bars and sommeliers who on Simon Woolf A full-bodied, spicy and honeyed wine with camomile and thyme chestnut, ‘there’s no such thing as over-enthusiastic levels of consumption. occasion display a semi-religious zeal. notes leading to a thrilling palate with serious grip. Somehow more than the sum of natural wine, it would just be vinegar’ Their now-seminal work influenced Key proponents include US writer its parts, which are 60% Malvasia di Candia Aromatica with Ortrugo and Trebbiano. as the facile pedantry it always was. the ‘gang of five’, a group of Beaujolais- Alice Feiring, UK importer Les Caves Natural wine is here to stay as a small based winemakers lead by Marcel de Pyrene (behind the Real Wine Fair Andrew Jefford The full orange in colour. Perfumed, haunting aromas of rose and but significant niche; the agitator that Lapierre. They felt that better terroir in the UK) and French Master of Wine musk with some pineapple fruit. Full of deep, pure, head-turning flavours, keeps the wine world on its toes, the expression could be achieved by Isabelle Legeron. The latter’s RAW wine modulating from rosewater charm through apple-orchard fruit to textured, bitter- logical development of a back-to-the- following Chauvet’s methods – only fair has become one of the biggest roots movement that began with wild yeasts, semi-carbonic maceration events in the natural wine calendar, edged asperity at the very end. Very clean and pristine. Truly a white with the organic agriculture’s popularisation and no sulphur dioxide. and is fast becoming a global event. structure of a red, so it has fine meal-time aptitude and dazzling, compelling in the 1970s. Some parts of the flavours, too. An outstanding effort. How can we define natural conventional wine world have Sarah Jane Evans MW A riper style that is full of energy and laden with oranges and wine? Does it even need to be ‘They are as diverse, irrepressible issues with the niche. Natural defined and how can we say if wines can be hugely variable, rhubarb. Notes of cinnamon and ginger come through on the memorable finish. it’s good or not? These are the and idiosyncratic as the growers from cloudy, pungent and Drink 2017-2020 Alcohol 13.5% ➢ relevant questions now. This divisive to pure, light and joyful. first-of-its-kind tasting is a bid who produce them’ They are as diverse, to tackle these questions. irrepressible and idiosyncratic Nomenclature always throws up As the movement gained as the growers who produce them. challenges. ‘Natural wine’ is a term of momentum, its manifesto broadened This has led some to assert that the Decanter’s natural wine charter convenience; two simple words to into the counter-response to an wines are faulty, atypical or lacking in describe a complex, sprawling ideology over-industrialised, post-war wine terroir – that very quality often touted As there is no strict definition of ‘natural author and consultant on organic, • Hand-harvested only that includes organic and biodynamic industry, and US critic Robert Parker’s as the raison d’être. True or not, there wine’, deciding the entry criteria for biodynamic and sustainable viticulture; • Fermentation with indigenous (wild) viticulture, minimal intervention in supposed ideal of over-concentrated, are good and bad winemakers in this samples for this tasting was not easy. and Simon Woolf, a writer who specialises yeasts the winery, and sometimes radical over-oaked fruit bombs. Natural category as with any other. To help, we sought advice from in organic, biodynamic and natural wines. • No enzymes views on sulphur dioxide. winemakers seek a return to more Ultimately, natural wines must be members of the industry noted for their After collating the responses, we • No additives added (such as acid, How and why the movement honest practices in both vineyard and judged on their own terms. At their expertise in natural wines: Doug Wregg came up with our own Decanter charter tannin, colouring) other than SO2 developed is a story that hails from winery, the goal to make wine with no best, they are refreshing in their from UK importer/retailer Les Caves de of quality for natural wines which we • SO2 levels no higher than 70mg/l total the 1980s in Morgon, Beaujolais. other input than grapes. Sustainability clarity and disarming in their honesty. Pyrene, which is behind The Real Wine used as a basis for entry: • Unfined, and no (or light) filtration Winemaker and intellectual Jules and integrity are the major themes. They force us to rethink attitudes, to Fair; Isabelle Legeron MW, the creator of • Vineyards farmed organically or • No other heavy manipulation (such as Chauvet and his colleague Jacques Natural wine has developed as a recalibrate tired palates, to focus on the RAW wine fairs in London, New York biodynamically – certification was spinning cone, reverse osmosis, Néauport researched and refined counter-culture. From Paris’s ‘caves au enjoyment and drinkability. In a world and Berlin; David Harvey of UK shipper strongly preferred, but uncertified wines cryoextraction, rapid-finishing, methods of making wine without vins naturelles’ to hip new venues in full of homogeneity and blandness, and retailer Raeburn; Monty Waldin, were accepted Ultraviolet C irradiation) added sulphur dioxide, as legend has London and New York, there’s a fast there is surely no better antidote. 68 | May 2017 • DECANTER For full details of UK stockists, see p105 For full details of UK stockists, see p105 DECANTER • May 2017 | 69 NATURAL WINE Simon Woolf’s top 10 picks from the tasting Vodopivec, Vitovska, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy 2010 95 5 I wasn’t looking for any This tasting was hugely enjoyable for its £45.35 Buon Vino, Christopher Keiller, Les particular style or flavour range of styles, countries and winemaking Caves de Pyrene, Noble Fine Liquor profile in this tasting; techniques. That said, it was challenging to 5 Understated aromatics of jasmine and exotic fruits there is no such a thing as apply objective judging standards across such intermingle with baked apple and plum skin. It has a ‘template’ for natural a disparate set of wines. Nonetheless, those fine tannins and an engaging citrus undertone. wines. I was delighted at bottles which rose to the top all had Very well integrated and complete; a lot of the overall high quality of something individual and exciting to say. They refinement here. Drink 2017-2025 Alc 12.5% winemaking evident, and were wines that succeeded on their own terms the lack of obvious faults. – surely the point of the exercise here. Batiˇc, Angel, Kakovostno, While I’m a strong proponent of minimal Slovenia 2011 94 6 intervention, organics and biodynamics, I’m £35 Pacta Connect no lover of excess brettanomyces (brett), ‘The bottles which rose to Simon Woolf is an A wine full of ripe, buttery, baked volatile acidity or unintended oxidation. Only award-winning 6 apple, ginger and caramel aromas. There is two of 122 wines tasted had a hint of the top all had something writer, columnist not a whole lot of fruit on the palate, but mousiness, my bête noire (not to be confused and specialist in the texture is full, creamy and certainly with brett, although the two often cohabit). individual and exciting to say’ natural wines hedonistic. Drink 2017-2018 Alc 13% Valdonica, Ballarino, Vermentino, Tuscany, Domaine des Cognettes, Sélection, Italy 2012 98 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie, Loire, 1 7 £25 Burgess & Hall, Red Squirrel, Twenty One Wines France 2015 94 Characterful dried apricot, hay and dried herbs £11-£11.99 Roberson, The Wine Reserve 1 combine with a wonderful waxiness that adds 7 Ripe and lively, this Muscadet is showing delicious interest. An assertive but beautifully balanced pear and green melon with a complementary leesy wine, nicely developed and pure to the last. note that rounds out the texture and gives it a Drink 2017-2022 Alc 13.5% refined finish. Drink 2017-2020 Alc 12% Meinklang, Graupert, Grauburgunder, Marc Kreydenweiss, Riesling, Austria 2015 96 Grand Cru Kastelberg, Alsace, 2 £17.50-£28 The Winemakers Club, Vintage 8 France 2012 94 Roots, WoodWinters £35.99 Champagnes & Châteaux 2 Succulent and perfumed with a tantalising 8 Delightful acidity gives way to pleasing melange of white raspberry and spiced rhubarb. sweetness and some waxy, spiced notes.