WTN: Natural Wine - French and Italian Versions in Paris

Caves Augé were having a tasting of natural wine from the Loire, so naturally I had to attend. I went with a friend who doesn’t drink much wine and I kept begging her to taste but she would only smell. I think she learned a lot about the different wines just from their smell, but who really knows..

I won’t bore you with too many detailed notes since many of these producers were written up in the flurry of Real Wine Attack notes from a little while back. But, some impressions….

We/I started with Tue Bouef where it was all fun and fine but I was most impressed by the 2007 Cheverny Caillère. Not because it was the best, but it had the juiciest friendliest fruit right now. In comparison, the 2008s had just been put in bottle and the 2007 Touraine Guerrerie was also less sorted out. Or maybe that was just me.

I liked almost everything from Bellivière although the 2007 L’Effraie seemed a bit candied and off. Is this a problem or will it resolve itself with time?

I was not very taken by the Mosse wines (Anjou rouge 2007, blanc 2007, Bonnes Blanches 2007, Rouchefer 2007) which seemed too far in the generic hipster style for my tastes (contrary to the direction I had been led to believe they were going?). I felt the same way about the handful of Briseau whites that were on display but the 2007 Coteaux du Loir Mortiers was glorious and more glorious.

I was not enthused by the Montlouis from Frantz Saumon, who I had never heard of before and his round sweet wines did not inspire me. Was I missing something?

Given this track record, I was primed not to like the Pascal Simonutti wines because they looked very natural and weird, but the three 2007 wines he poured were good fun fresh wines that I probably should have taken with me for further exploration.

But, after tasting some of the freakier wines, it felt like coming home to the Pierre and Catherine Breton lineup which was grand as expected. I particularly liked the 2007 Nuits d’Ivresse which I bought to take to a party and impress the crowds. It was my first chance to taste the 2006 Chinon Saint Louans which leaned on the crisp herbal side of things – despite its ripeness – and was a fun contrast to some of the other darker wines on display. Such as the 2006 Bourgueil Perrières and the 2006 Bourgueil Perrières (from magnum), both of which were dark firm delights that I could have drunk all day.

But there was work to do. Which is what it felt like with many of the Olivier Lemasson wines, which were just too plain funky. Most of the Domaine de Montrieux wines were also in that generic funky vein, but somehow the 2008 Coteaux du vendômois rosé grabbed me as something ripe and fun and fresh and nice.

A similar pattern continued with Alain Lenoir where I only liked the ripe fresh and fun 2007 Chinon but the rest seemed like a disaster. At Villemade I found a good dose of juicy succulent pleasure in the 2007 Cheverny Ardilles but otherwise was not enthused. I was downright disappointed in Sébastien Riffault because I had been very intrigued by the rich, dry, mineral , and distinctive 2006 Akméniné, but the three 2007 wines on display were all in that generic pungent vein.

There were some other producers on display, but I had to run. And on my way out a friend encouraged me to visit her tasting of female Italian natural winemakers a few days later. Not necessarily the most obvious way to draw a crowd in Paris, but they did a pretty good job. And although I am in town for business (think what you may, academics do work!) I certainly didn’t want to pass this up.

So, I strolled in to start my palate with some delightful treats from Isabella Pelizzati-Perego. The freshness and the zip on these wines is magnificent, but as you know they are far from simple acid bombs. The 1999 Valtellina Superiore Sassella Vigna Regina Riserva was so lively and delicious I was already happy. The 1996 Valtellina Superiore Sassella Vigna Rocce Rosse Riserva took a bit more concentration and was slightly reduced (only recently out of barrel she told me), but it was also a fine pleasure that I would have liked to enjoy more of. Were I not stuck in Paris with so many other things competing for my attention! That said, the 2002 Valtellina Superiore Sassella Ultimi Raggi was a late harvest wine that did not really square the circle in my palate.

But speaking of competing for my attention, the lineup of eight bottles of Emidio Pepe with smiling mother and daughter were certainly worth a visit. The 2005 and 2006 whites were both succulent crisp and interestingly nutty and complex. I could have kept taking more pours but the reds were beckoning. The 2005, 2003, and 2001 were each ripe focused and gorgeous in their own way although the 2000 was probably my favorite because it was softening and maturing in the mid-palate and entering grace. I know people like the older wines from this house but I was a bit less excited by the 1985 and 1977. Both had their own versions of nuts and volatility and all those aged sour flavors. I probably liked the 1977 more because it seemed to have greater complexity, and I would have been very happy to explore it further, but given the price for these I would have been more likely to buy the 2000. Is there something I need to know about these vintages?

Wines from Bera and Occhipinti were dark fun things, each in their own geographic way. But you probably already knew that.

You probably also already know that the wines from Foradori rock. But let me tell you again. The 2006 Foradori and the 2006 Granato were each so beautiful, supple, mineral, lovely, delightful and delicate. They spoke directly to my palate and my soul. Not that they were better than any of the other wines (can we even measure that?) but this is my style of wine. Because just when I thought they were getting too polished (and I seem to remember previous vintages having more herbal delights), they showed poise, freshness, and lusty mineral finesse. No complaints. Obviously the Granato had more depth, etc…

There were other wines, and I tasted some of them, but I was also out of the door with some wine shopping to do.

Now if only I can muster up a German natural wine tasting in Paris!

[David M. Bueker]

Given all the dogma around "natural wine" I doubt you could adequately fill a tasting of German wines. Between the filtering and sulfuring needed to keep the sweet versions stable they would be right out.

The dry ones are too expensive.

Given all the dogma around "natural wine" I doubt you could adequately fill a tasting of German wines. Between the filtering and sulfuring needed to keep the sweet versions stable they would be right out.

Oh, I think you could get enough for a tasting (if not an auditorium). Because even if the German equivalents of 'natural' wine might not be approved by some of the most extreme practitioners in France, they are not necessarily the arbiters of the concept. (E.g. most of the Italian 'natural' wine producers at this tasting added a bit of sulfur for stability and their wines were all the better for it, IMHO)..

But I think this somewhat-vague movement is growing in Germany as well. Even if not yet imported in large quantities to the U.S.

Sounds like a really interesting tasting.

My whole issue with natural wines though is that they're great when you taste them near the source, when provenance is generally very good. Once the wines get shipped, passed through the whole distribution system in the US and there are a lot more factors that put question marks over perfect provenance (which IMO is essential when dealing with no/low sulphur wines), then it becomes much more of a crapshoot.

[David M. Bueker]

I have had a number of delicious "natural" wines, but then the whole idea is a bit of a farce since the grapes had to be picked, fermented in some container, pressed, corked, boxed, shipped & sold. Natural stopped at the vine.

I have had a number of delicious "natural" wines, but then the whole idea is a bit of a farce...

I agree that 'natural' is perhaps not the most precise word to describe what people are doing. But, there is lots of energy behind various stylistic choices and in some respects that is an exciting thing. For a lot of the no sulfur carbonic maceration wines, I find them simple easy drinking fun but not really anything worth going out of my way for (or paying a lot of money for).

However, regardless of labels, from the list above I'm a huge fan of C&P Breton, Foradori, and I'd be happy to drink Pepe wines any day of the week, because they all exhibit great terroir and grape-expression.

I attended a similar fair in New York City in early March and there tasted some100 "natural" wines.
I'll be the first to admit that I have several problems with what are called "natural wines". To my understanding, such wines are made with minimal intervention on the part of the winemaker – those interventions both in the vineyard and the winery.

1. Many who produce such wines strive for particularly low-yielding vineyards. That is fine and natural when we are talking about true vieille vignes, that is to say, vines that produce low yields because of their age (minimum 30 yrs). When that implies cutting back though (the usual process to avoid high yields), is that not an intervention?

2. Many who produce these wines claim that hand-picking is more "natural" than machine picking. That may be more old fashioned and in the case vineyards that are on very steep or rugged slopes, indeed logical, but I cannot for the love of me figure out why hand-picking is more "natural"

3. I also have a problem with the claim that such wineries do not use micro-oxygenation. Does that mean that they rely entirely on cherry-wood and never on oak?

4. The use of natural yeasts is commendable. Alas, using only natural yeasts is an odd process and sometimes the must simply refuses to ferment. Does the honest "natural" winemaker thus pour that particular barrel into the sewer. Me doubts that.

5. I am also in favor of the use of minimal sulphite usage, but being honest, the moment you add even the most miniscule amount of sulphites to a wine you have moved away from the fully "natural"

And then there are the differentiations between natural, organic and bio-dynamic. It might easily be said that all bio-dynamists are organic, but can we say that all organicists are "natural". And it can certainly not be claimed that naturalists (in the wine sense) are either organic or bio-dynamic.

As odd as it may sound, I can work up far more enthusiasm for organic and even bio-dynamic methodologies (the bio-dynamic to me a sub-set of organic) than for natural wines. When it comes to the natural, I am reminded of a joke told me years ago by Barry Saslove, a then quite young winemaker in Israel. The story has it that a wine critic was invited to taste the wines of a natural winemaker. The critic and the winemaker were sitting on the terrace of the winemaker's home in full view of the vineyards. The wines, alas, were truly terrible and the critic, wanting not to hurt the winemaker's feelings strove for a diplomatic way to say that. Finally, the critic asked "So tell me, where isyour winery". The winemaker pointed and said, "just over the hill there, about 100 meters from here". The critic smiled broadly and said: "Ah…that explains it. Your wines do not travel well"

The fate of too many natural wines perhaps?

Best
Rogov

Sounds fun, Rahsaan, wish I had been there!

Too bad about Mosse - I loved their new Savennieres in Paris but wasn't so impressed with the Anjou that I brought down with me.

The Bretons didn't have any Dilettante wines on display? I'll look for the 07 Nuits d'Ivresse.

Did you try the Occhipinti frapatto? I'm curious about that...

I've been a big fan of Foradori since going through a gorgeous case of 97 Granato a few years back. Have never liked any subsequent Granato as much, so will check out the 2006.

On the issue of natural wines, I don't think it's helpful to get hung up on the semantics of the word "natural," which can be, as pointed out above, misleading.

I don't think we'll ever be able to settle the pros and cons scientifically. For that, we'd have to compare wine made from adjacent vines, one following all the "rules," the other breaking them all (including different treatments for the soils without contaminating the neighbor), and whatever that "proved" would still be so open to discussion and interpretation that it would be close to useless. It is claimed that the vineyards of "natural" winemakers look much healthier than those of "regular" winemakers, but the assumption that this makes better-tasting wine is still, well, an assumption, though It's one I would readily make.

I think of it simply as a matter of principle. To make an analogy, I respect it more if someone looks good because they eat well, go to the gym and generally live healthily than if they do so because of plastic surgery, liposuction, botox and silicone implants and stomach reduction. While the latter person, in practice, could be much more fascinating to talk to, as a matter of principle, before knowing anything else, I prefer the former. Same thing with wine, I prefer the "honest" to the "dishonest" (another loaded word, which I readily withdraw if anyone objects, because I have no stake in semantics), though, in practice, the honest may reek of bacteria and the dishonest may be antiseptic and pristine.

Against "natural" winemakers, I would agree that there is lots of disingenuity being thrown about in claims of making wine "in the field and not in the cellar," or "bottled grapes," or "honest wine" (see?) and other marketing gambits. Maybe we should just forget about labels and value judgments and look at the procedures (see below, drawn from a manifesto I found on the web), knowing full well that we will never be able to settle the issue to anyone's satisfaction because it is more a matter of faith than science. And it's not about following every single dictum to the letter or else they get caught with their pants down. It's about heading in the general direction of all of these, more and more, until you're mostly there.

Manual selection and picking of grapes. (Daniel, it's not about this being more "natural," it's simply a way to avoid picking grapes that are green, or spoiled; machines cannot currently discriminate)

Cultivation without the use of synthetic chemical substances, subject to the vine and its natural cycles.

Wine made from grapes harvested with physiological maturation and perfect health.

Made from must without sulfur dioxide or other additives (sulfur dioxide can be added only in small amounts at the time of bottling).

Use of indigenous yeasts.

No chemical or physical interventions at the beginning or during alcoholic fermentation other than simple temperature control (excludes all practices of concentration).

Maturing on lees until bottling.

No correction or “editing” of any parameters.

No clarifying and filtering before bottling.

Notably absent is anything about the use of wood. From what I've read, your average "natural" winemaker will want to use older oak barrels, those that no longer impart flavor, for the sole purpose of gentle and "natural" micro-oxigenation.

Too bad about Mosse - I loved their new Savennieres in Paris but wasn't so impressed with the Anjou that I brought down with me.

Ok. They didn't have any Savennieres on display so I'm glad to hear that they are better than the Anjou.

The Bretons didn't have any Dilettante wines on display? I'll look for the 07 Nuits d'Ivresse.

They had a Dilettante vouvray petillante which was great fun, no complaints. The 07 Franc de Pieds was also fun, although a bit more herbal than the darker 07 Nuits d'Ivresse. It really just depends what you are in the mood for!

Did you try the Occhipinti frapatto? I'm curious about that...

I did try the 2008 SP68, the 2007 Frappato and the 2006 Siccagno but I'm not really very competent with these wines since I have so little experience with them. I preferred the Siccagno to the Frappato because it was more focused but that could also just be a function of vintage and grape. So I wouldn't want to make any serious judgements. Perhaps others tasted when they were on the Real Wine Attack?

I've been a big fan of Foradori since going through a gorgeous case of 97 Granato a few years back. Have never liked any subsequent Granato as much, so will check out the 2006.

I don't have a huge comparative perspective, I've tasted a few teroldegos from various producers over the years, but I didn't really see anything not to like about this wine