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Wine production: How natural wine is made

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Hand harvesting vs. mechanical harvesting
De-stemming vs. whole bunch: start of fermentation
Maceration time: extraction
Pressing
Fermentation and maturation
Racking and bottling

How is wine actually made? And what is the difference between industrially produced wines and natural wines? If you look at wine production like cooking, the harvest and the working methods in the vineyard are like your ingredients. The more precisely and carefully you work, the higher the quality of the grapes and the wine produced. It is not without reason that they say that good wines are made in the vineyard. However, in addition to meticulous manual work in the vineyard, it takes even more finesse. Here you can find out everything about making natural wines.

Handlese bei Peter Jakob Kühn im Rheingau

Peter Bernhard Kühn at the Riesling harvest in the Rheingau, Germany

Hand harvest vs. mechanical harvester

The quality of a wine is already determined during the harvest, as each subsequent phase strengthens the starting material. Wine production can be compared to cooking, where every next step and condition determines the final taste. With grapes, however, you have to be much more careful, which is why natural wines are carefully selected by hand in small boxes, rigorously selected in the vineyard and harvested in the morning at cooler temperatures. Hand-picking is essential for a natural wine and is usually not indicated on the label, as it is a matter of course for the community.

Conventional wineries, on the other hand, harvest with high-tech harvesting machines and collect everything they can find. From birds' nests to insects, rotten grapes and branches. The most fatal thing? They destroy the grapes. As soon as the skin of a grape breaks, the juice begins to oxidize and becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. This is the reason why wineries that work mechanically have to use more additives and more sulphites, often immediately after the harvest before fermentation. A fatal intervention in taste and origin.

To the point:

Natural wine is made with careful hand harvesting, spontaneous fermentation with its own yeasts, without additives and uncompromising maturation until the wine stabilizes on its own.

Wein Herstellung und Handlese bei Pranzegg

Hand-picking with small crates at Pranzegg in Bolzano, South Tyrol

De-stemming vs. whole bunch: start of fermentation

After the harvest, the grapes are separated from the stems on a sorting table or on a vibrating desk - also known as destemming. This is generally done with most grapes. However, there are exceptions for rosé and red wines, as winemakers decide whether or not to ferment the grapes and stems as a whole bunch (sometimes even fermenting them completely) depending on the style, which often gives the wine more structure and green tannins. You can find out how this tastes with the natural wines from Karl Schnabel or Zorjan. After destemming, the grapes - with or without stems - are placed in a container, which can be a large wooden barrel, steel tank or concrete tank.

Similar to sourdough production, there are some winemakers who use a fermentation starter, known as pied-de-cuve in French. Before the actual harvest begins, they crush a small amount of grapes into a small container, which they sometimes heat slightly to initiate fermentation. Once it is in tact, it is added to the other grapes and fermentation is started.

This is also where the well-known treading of the grapes with the feet comes into play. This method ensures that the juice combines more quickly with the skins and gives the wine more structure. This process is celebrated in many wine regions. Foulage is usually carried out on red and orange wines.

Another important point is the temperature, as hot grapes can lead to chaotic fermentation. Some natural wine winemakers prefer to cool their grapes for twelve to twenty-four hours before bottling.
While the grapes are waiting in the fermentation tanks for the fermentation to start, the winemakers pay great attention and care. As you probably know, natural wines ferment spontaneously with the vineyard's own yeasts, which can sometimes happen faster, sometimes slower.

Conventionally produced wines are already mixed with artificial yeasts at this point, so the original taste is immediately lost and the wine is given a fake fruit aroma.

Maceration time: extraction

The grapes have arrived in the tank or barrel and, whether destemmed or not, the juice begins to absorb the color, tannins and aromas from the skins. For winemakers, this is the time to determine the style of the wine. From white wines with little to no skin contact to intense, amber-colored orange wines with sometimes weeks of skin contact, this is where the wheat is literally separated from the chaff - and the tannin from the berry skin. A kind of ritual, a mysterious transformation.

One of the masters of this is Bozidar Zorjan from Slovenia. His orange wines, which are fermented for one year with whole grapes in Dolium amphorae, are natural wines of the highest quality. But Hartmut Aubell from Rebenhof in Styria also plays with the maceration time like an artist. In Germany, Georg Lingenfelder shows us how to tame aromatic grape varieties with tannins with his aromatic Morio.

Silt 2015 von Rebenhof, Hartmut Aubell

No glou-glou orange, this is elegant, calm and equipped with very fine tannins. 2015 may sound old, but the wine radiates considerable freshness and energy. A one-off, a prime example. "Not a day without silt" - Hartmut Aubell

Morio 2022 von Georg Lingenfelder

The 45-year-old Morio-Muskat vines conjure up a deep, inviting aroma in the glass - delicately floral with orange and lemon peel accompanied by a fine tannin structure with a juicy mouthfeel!

Lazki Riesling 2020 von Bozidar Zorjan

Refined gold in liquid form: spicy and smoky with a concentrated load of aromas that are wonderfully kept in check by the tannins. An absolute orange wine that continues to develop over weeks. Be sure to decant!

Rosé wines are made either directly with the free-run juice or after a very short maceration period of red wine grapes and pressed directly.

Maischestandzeit

Pinot Noir mash before pressing at Kolònia 52 in Hungary

If you want a dense and structured wine, winemakers can carry out pigéage or pumpovers. The term pigéage refers to the crushing of the grape mass so that the juice combines with the skins and moisture is added to the surface of the skins. The more often this is done, the more intense a wine can become because more tannins are released. In pumpovers, the juice is generally poured onto the skins from below to protect them from drying out.

What is carbonic maceration?

Sounds very technical at first, but it is relatively easy to understand. Also known as carbonic maceration, the method in its classic form is fermentation with undamaged whole grapes in an air-sealed and CO2-free tank. This means that the fermentation of the juice takes place in the grape skin itself, without it being crushed first. Oha! Basically, the juice usually reaches 1 - 3% alcohol before it is pressed.

The method was first explained by oenologist Michel Flanzy and further explored by Jules Chauvet - one of the founders of the natural wine movement - in Beaujolais, France, in the 1980s and is synonymous with an extremely fruity style of wine. Nowadays, many winemakers are experimenting with this method and creating exciting wine styles. In the Drops range, you will find such wines from Peter Nagyvaradi, Yvon Metras and Naboso.

What do wines with carbonic maceration taste like? By and large, most wines share the same taste profile: soft tannins and candied fruit. The bottom line: fruit-forward! Long carbonic macerations can produce extremely long-lived, deep wines with an earthy character.

Our carbonic maceration recommendations:

Monoslou 2022 von Peter Nagyvaradi

Fragrant strawberry-cherry combo with fine peppery spice! Light-footed and harmonious, with a little air this becomes phenomenal. A fine Blaufränkisch that stands for modern Hungary!

Beaujolais 2022 von Yvon Metras

The juiciest and lightest of the Metras wines, but with considerable tension and length. Dark sour cherries and fragrant strawberries paired with earthy spiciness - wow!

Pressing

When making white wine, the grapes are pressed directly as described above. For rosé, red and orange wines, the grapes have to be taken out of the tank and put into the press. Once the grapes are in the press, the juice is squeezed out of the grapes and a dry mass of pressed skins, seeds and stems - also known as pomace - remains. The pressing process itself is of unappreciated importance, as the duration and pressure can produce different intensities and styles.

From large pneumatic presses to vertical and horizontal basket presses, the best known is probably the foot press, wink! A characteristic of high-quality wine production is basically a slow pressing process. It allows the fresh juice to filter the grape mass, enriching and stabilizing it with atmospheric yeasts. Almost all winemakers claim to press slowly. But how slow? Some consider three hours to be slow, while others press for twelve to twenty-four hours.

The must is cloudy, sweet and rich in yeast. How it is treated and how much oxygen it sees at this stage can significantly affect the character of a finished wine. Conventional winemakers would already add sulphites at this point to protect it from oxidation. Natural wine winemakers generally refrain from doing so, although there are exceptions in Champagne.

Fermentation and ageing

The juice has been pressed and is now transferred to the respective container for further fermentation and maturation. From small barrels to large steel tanks, this is where the must spends most of its time before the wine is bottled - in German, this is maturation on the lees. Alcoholic fermentation has already begun and the yeast continues to convert the sugar into alcohol. Another process takes place at the same time or shortly afterwards: malolactic fermentation. Here, the hard malic acid is converted into lactic acid by lactic acid bacteria.

After the wine has undergone the fermentation process, it undergoes further changes during its maturation. Colors stabilize, the wine becomes clear, without any filtration - in French this process is called élevage.

Amphoren Ausbau bei Foradori

Elisabetta Foradori in the amphora cellar in Trentino, Italy

How long the wine matures and in what type of container is a question of philosophy and style for winemakers. It is important to understand that for natural winemakers, the duration of fermentation and ageing is in direct harmony with the individual needs of the wine. There are new questions and answers every year. Natural wine winemakers act in accordance with their own creations, comparable to chefs.

Conventional winemakers, by comparison, take measures to standardize and accelerate the fermentation and maturation process. This includes the use of commercial yeasts, the addition of chemical nutrients and the inoculation of the wine with lactic acid bacteria.

Racking and bottling

If the wine is bottled in the same year as the harvest, it is widely referred to as Vin Nouveau or Vin Primeur - known from Beaujolais. However, most wines mature until spring or shortly before the next harvest before they are bottled.

So how is the clear wine bottled? As a rule, the wines are removed from the maturing container and transferred to a new (often larger) container before bottling. This homogenizes individual batches of wine and different barrels, which may differ during the maturation period. It also removes the settled yeasts. This process is called racking and it represents the last moment for intervention or modification.

Abstich Wein Herstellung

In conventional wineries, the wine is still fined, filtered and high sulphur dosages are administered in line with market requirements - all energy and liveliness is thereby removed from the wines.
In contrast, natural wine winemakers naturally dispense with any filtration and fill the clear wine with a small addition of sulphur or without. A philosophical question for some. The amount varies depending on the vintage and condition of the wine. This crucial process distinguishes top wines from mediocre ones.

There are different practices and approaches to racking. The ideal method is gravity racking, but this is not always possible in small cellars due to their size. In practice, racking is therefore usually carried out with the help of pumps - a simple method, but one that requires a lot of attention and skill. Basically, every winemaker has their own method. Some use contemporary technologies, while others even fill by hand.

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