April 02, 2026 - 2 comments
A Guided Journey into Natural Wine: Dans la Jungle des Vins Naturels
Natural wine continues to fascinate, spark debate, and inspire. Rarely easy to define and often misunderstood by newcomers, it has grown into a global movement that challenges our assumptions about wine and our relationship with the living world. Dans la Jungle des Vins Naturels aims to explore this complex, passionate, and sometimes contradictory landscape.
Published in August 2025 by Éditions du Toucan, the book is authored by Jean‑François Ganevat, Jean Foillard, and Éric Conan, three key voices in the contemporary history of natural wine in France.
Ganevat and Foillard have each helped redefine what a living wine can be: one from the Jura, the other from Beaujolais, both producing wines celebrated for their intensity and finesse. Alongside them, journalist Éric Conan has followed the rise of natural wine since its earliest days, bringing an intimate yet documented perspective to the book.
Rather than a simple dictionary of terms, Dans la Jungle des Vins Naturels takes the form of a three‑way conversation. It traces the technical, gustatory, commercial, and political history of natural wine in France: its marginal beginnings, the controversies along the way, reactions from conventional winemaking, and the anecdotes that shaped the movement.
This conversational approach makes often obscure topics accessible: vineyard practices, cellar choices, spectacular successes, and pitfalls to avoid. Readers learn not only to understand complex wine terms but also to place them in a living history, shaped by people who have dedicated their lives to natural wine.
This is not just a book for specialists: whether you are a curious amateur, a wine professional, or simply someone wanting to understand what “natural” really means in a world where definitions remain unclear, this book helps navigate a rich and fascinating universe.
Far from being a dogmatic manual, it opens the door to a nuanced understanding of wine: balancing respect for the terroir, meticulous manual work, and reflections on what a winemaker’s role should be today.
Raisin Meets the Authors
At Raisin, we had the honor of interviewing Jean‑François Ganevat, Jean Foillard, and Éric Conan for in‑depth interviews about the book and their experiences. Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing these conversations as videos on our website, apps and social platforms.
From their relationship with the vineyard to memories of the movement’s early days, and their thoughts on the future of natural wine, these exchanges offer a rare opportunity to hear directly from the people who have lived and shaped this essential story.
Stay tuned: the journey through the jungle of natural wine is only just beginning.
