Natural wines from France

Natural wine is as old as wine itself, but in recent decades we have rested so much on the numerous technological possibilities that we have shaped wine more and more, or even designed it to conform to the market. Of course, many winemakers have always worked close to nature, but the real comeback came in the 1970s in the French Beaujolais, where natural wine became known under the terms vin naturel, vin vivants or vin nature.

The desire developed to get closer to the terroir again, to return to ecologically sustainable agriculture in order to press a wine that was as authentic and expressive as possible. In the industrially damaged wine region of Beaujolais, three men got together. The scientist Jules Chauvet, with the help of Jaques Néauport and Marcel Lapierre, researched biological acid reduction, the renunciation of sulphur in vinification and intracellular fermentation, also known as carbonic acid mixing - by the way, it was never their declared goal to eliminate sulphur, it was really about the quantity and the reason. Infected by the idea, friends and natural wine pioneers Lapierre, Thevenet, Breton and Foillard immediately changed their work in the vineyard and reused traditional methods. It is not without reason that it has always been said that wine is made in the vineyard.

After the first results were tasted, evaluated and hotly debated, the first vin naturel salons were also held in Paris - that was in the 80s, no one knows exactly, it just happened. Jean Foillard still remembers exactly when he had to bring some barrels to the distillery, because not everything always went well. Gradually, other winegrowers joined in, such as Pierre Overnoy from the Jura, or Philippe Laurent from Gramenon and Marcel Richaud from the Loire. As more and more natural wine was brought to Paris and drunk, the gastronomy was of course not left cold. Synergies were created and with them the birth of Parisian bistronomy - so the storm of the conquest of natural wine was perfect. Cheers.