Wine 101

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from grapes. You can make wine from other fruits, but they overwhelmingly tend to be awful. Traditionally made cider is technically a sparkling wine, but don’t get too hung up on that. For our purposes, wine is made from grapes, which can range in color from bright green, to golden yellow, dusty pink, scarlet red, and almost-black purple. Wine comes in a few different styles, but is classically categorized as white, rosé, orange, and red. These same styles also exist as sparkling wines. Some are great (Champagne!), some are less great (that one bottle of Lambrusco in your parent’s cupboard).

When you see a specific year (1995, 2020, etc.) on a bottle of wine, that year represents the vintage. Simply put, the vintage is the year the grapes for that particular wine were picked. Grapes are harvested only once a year after a pretty meticulous and volatile growing process. In the Northern Hemisphere, this happens between August and November depending on the climate of that area — the warmer the area, the earlier the grapes will ripen and need to be picked. In the Southern Hemisphere the harvest months are between February and April.

As far as whether vintages matter or not, this is where things can get deep and nerdy, occasionally obnoxiously so. There are good vintages, and some not so great vintages. Some vintages are considered failures, whilst some are considered miracles. An important thing to remember is that for many of the producers we choose to list, they make the best wine possible regardless of the vintage conditions.

Once the grapes are picked the winemaking process starts. Winemaking is the period from picking raw grapes to sealing the bottle with a cork, and the many decisions in between. It can be a science for some and for others it is a mysterious process yielding distinct and delicious results — much like a cook may precisely follow a recipe, or a chef may weave a perfect meal from instinct and gut.

As for the science, winemaking differs depending on the grape being used, as well as the traditions and laws of the region. Many regions require things like aging requirements in order for that region to be promoted on a label. Take Champagne, for example — there are many steps and procedures that need to be followed in order to have the word “Champagne” on your wine label. Unless you want to get sued.

The process always starts with pressing, followed by fermentation and then aging. This process can be done in a matter of weeks or, in some cases, many, many years — though most wines are finished within a two year period from when the grapes were picked. The winemaker ferments the juice of the grapes and then stores them in some vessel of choice. Oak barrels being the most commonly used for reds, while white wines are largely stored in vessels such as stainless steel or concrete in order to preserve their freshness.

If you asked 10 people, 8 of them wouldn’t be able to give you a proper answer. And that’s not because they’re just following the TikTok crowd — although many probably are. Like true love or any number divided by zero, natural wine is undefined. But while it has no official rules and it’s not listed in the dictionary, it can be thought of as an umbrella term covering a few general winemaking principles.

Natural wine, like many cool and trendy things, is subjective (read: cooler). There’s a nuanced and complicated conversation about where the lines of traditional, commercial, and natural winemaking styles are drawn. Without trying to make your brain go non-verbal, an easy way to think about natural wines is that they tend to be made by down-to-earth people who farm organically and allow the grapes to ferment into wine without adding things to control the process or manipulating the base ingredients in the cellar. In summary:

• The grapes are handpicked after being grown organically and/or biodynamically.
• The winemakers are small-scale producers, often in areas that aren’t thought of as blue-chip wine regions.
• Fermentation is kicked off with yeasts that exist naturally in the vineyard, and the addition of sulfites is kept to a minimum.
• Wines are bottled with minimal fining or filtering (a lot of them are cloudy).

Basically, it’s the pursuit to minimize human intervention in the winemaking process to allow the most authentic representation of the land and grapes as possible.

That’s all well and good, but how does it taste? Generally, natural wine is savory and somewhat cloudy-looking. It’s relatively low in fruitiness and alcohol, and pretty heavy on yeasty or barnyard-y notes. With that said, flavors and styles of natural wine vary quite a bit — and from young Beaujolais to vintage Cristal, you can find natural versions of pretty much any type of wine out there.

So saying “I love natural wine” is kind of like saying “I love wine.” We certainly don’t have a problem with that sentiment — we’re simply saying that it’s worth understanding what you like about it. If you’re intrigued by “funky” flavors in wine, then you should explore the Jura region of France, skin-contact wines from Eastern Europe, or Pét-Nats from pretty much anywhere. Meanwhile, if you want to support independent producers who practice environmentally sustainable farming, but you’d prefer more “traditional” tasting wines, then Beaujolais, the Loire Valley, and Northern Italy should be right up your alley.

And if you enjoy the fact that natural wine’s lack of rules eliminates barriers to entry, putting everyone on a level playing field, then just keep in mind that it’s undefined. Natural wine has been used as a catch-all term by some recent generations of winemakers, sometimes sadly (and obviously) as a way to sell poorly made wine to an overeager subculture of devotees who thought they were being really punk by dismissing Barolo and Burgundy as outdated and a symptom of capitalist gout. Luckily, as usually happens when something is new and exciting and must be pushed to the outer limit, we’ve begun to move back towards a delicious middle ground where the techniques of previous generations; improved understanding of biodynamic farming (and the impact of climate change on growing conditions); a push for generally healthier soils and fruit; and a desire for cleaner, accessible wines is being championed across some of our favorite regions, both classic and emerging.

Removing the tea bag after one minute results in a weak, less flavorful brew. White wines and rosés are usually removed from the skins as quickly as possible, as we’re looking for freshness and a lighter body in the finished wines.

Allowing the tea bag to steep for ten minutes yields a completely different cup. More flavor is extracted, and depending on the tea the mouthfeel may be denser — you might pick up some bitterness or tannins, too. Orange and red wines benefit from extended contact with the skins as they add not only color, but important tannins, texture, and body to the wines.

Typically how and for how long a wine is aged is based on traditional requirements for the style of wine (this is where AOC rules come into play) — i.e., vintage Champagne, being a higher-quality version of non-vintage Champagne, requires a minimum of 36 months aging before release. Red wines with large amounts of tannin (think Syrah or Bordeaux) require extended periods in oak and in bottle to soften the bitterness and power they display in their youth.

Some vessels, notably amphora and concrete, have been adopted by the natural wine movement as a means of imparting specific texture and body to a wine’s profile.

Use the below table as a reference point when talking about how wine is aged.

Soils with good drainage (like gravel and sand) often produce wines with higher acidity and a more defined flavor. In contrast, soils with higher water retention (like clay) tend to create wines with more body and richness.

Soils rich in minerals like limestone, volcanic ash, and schist tend to impart a mineral-driven quality to wines, which can range from crisp and chalky to smoky and saline.

Dark soils or those with high heat retention, such as volcanic soils, can help maintain consistent temperatures, leading to fully ripened fruit and wines with good structure.