What's natural wine?

Natural wine is wine made with just grapes, and sometimes a little bit of sulfur (no more than 30 mg/L for reds and 40 mg/L for whites). While they are often certified or practicing organic and/or biodynamic farming in the vineyards, these wines go beyond any certification standards in the cellar, resulting in wines that truly represent the taste of fermented fruit. These are wines that highlight the work of the winemaker, not a factory.

At this decisive time as our planet faces climate change, our relationship with the world around us and moving to sustainable agriculture is critical. In France, one of the world's largest wine producers, 30% of pesticides are concentrated into only 3% of the agricultural surface. Conversely, producing natural wine benefits the ecosystem in a humanistic way. The natural wine app aims to support these gardeners of the vines (aka winemakers), and allow them to be paid off for their hard, honest work. Meanwhile, the average price of a bottle of wine in Europe was 1.7€ in 2017 (and increases up to 10€ for importing countries). Such low prices imply the use of mass production methods, which do not respect the environment, and do not provide the necessary means for producers. If tomorrow the vineyards were made of up winemakers all working in this eco-friendly fashion, it would create a world of difference with beautiful biodiversity and a balance in our environment.

HOW DOES RAISIN IDENTIFY NATURAL WINES AND WINEMAKERS?

Our intention:

Since its creation, Raisin has aimed to make the natural wine world more easily accessible and understandable for everyone. To do so, the app shows our users where they can find this type of wine. With the new label scanning feature, we are taking it a step further to offer transparency as to how your wine is made. Imagine going into an establishment, scanning a label, and being confident that the wine in your glass is one that is purely fermented grapes! This feature is not intended to replace the expertise of a sommelier or a wine merchant, rather to serve as a complementary and practical tool.

What are our criteria for validation?

Raisin desires to embrace the natural wine movement in all its diversity, which of course includes its rebellious side that rejects any fixed definition. However, our team is loyal to certain criteria that we have borrowed from the Association of Natural Wine’s Cahier des charges (AVN) original charter, and this is something that we promise to our users!

minimal doses of sulphur in natural wine

What Is A Natural Winemaker?

We consider a winemaker to be Natural when he/she produces his/her wines in the following way:

Grapes come from vines grown without the use of synthetic products (organic/biodynamic certified or not)
Grapes are harvested by hand
Fermentation using indigenous yeasts
Vinification is carried out without the use of inputs (with the possible exception of a little sulfur: the total volume must be less than 30 mg/L for reds and 40 mg/L for whites and rosés for at least 50% of the wines).
No pasteurization, fining, heavy filtration or chaptalization.
No invasive practices or physical processes that alter the intrinsic characteristics of the wine (reverse osmosis, acidification, etc.).

How can we distinguish between different wines? (scanning feature)

With our title being “the natural wine app,” our goal is to create a complete list of all wines produced naturally, with as much detail as possible regarding how they were crafted, and the artisans who made them. On the other hand, we have no interest in listing all of the conventional wines out there, nor those that are already certified (AB, Ecocert, Demeter, Biodyvin, etc).
Instead, we strive to highlight true initiatives for natural winemaking, and avoid any confusion from deceiving advertisement on labels. So with the label scanner, wine search features, and rich database of winemakers, we aim to guarantee those that you can trust.

We strive to highlight true initiatives for natural winemaking, and avoid any confusion from deceiving advertisement on labels. That is why each wine posted on Raisin is reviewed according to these three categories:

Scan your label to find out if your wine is natural, organic and/or biodynamic

WINE MADE BY A NATURAL WINEMAKER: made only with grapes and sometimes a little sulfites, in the respect of the Nature and the Men.
THIS WINE IS ORGANIC AND/OR BIODYNAMIC: which has one of these certifications, but is not vinified in a natural way.
IS NOT MADE BY A NATURAL WINEMAKER: could be confused with the work of a natural winemaker, produced conventionally.
NOT SURE ABOUT THIS WINE...: without the necessary information about this winemaker, we are not in a position to categorize.

THE VARIOUS ASSOCIATIONS AND THE NATURAL WINE UNION

There are a multitude of associations and organizations around the world who work to provide the framework for a better understanding of what natural wine really is. While the requirements on different criteria may vary, the commonality is that they want to help consumers IDENTIFY WHAT IS NOT NATURAL WINE. All these approaches converge towards a better idea of how a wine is made, whether in the vineyard or in the cellar. Below is a list of the main organizations that exist to date:

➜ Syndicate for the Defense of Natural Wine

Vin Méthode Nature is the name of the first label dedicated to natural wine. Their goal is to provide a more concrete guarantees to consumers, (for example) by conducting random control procedures. The presence of 2 different logos on the back label makes it possible to identify if it is a natural wine (without added sulfur) or a natural wine (with a volume of sulfur lower than 30mg/L in total). The specifications:

100% of the grapes come from organic agriculture (Nature & Progrès, AB or 2nd year of conversion)
Manual harvesting
Indigenous yeasts
No other inputs
No voluntary modification of the grape's constitution
No brutal techniques
No sulfites added before and during fermentation (possibility of adjusting the order SO2 < 30mg/l total H2SO4 before bottling, with a dedicated label)
Non "Vin Méthode Nature" vintages must be clearly identified (with different labeling).

The Vin Méthode Nature label differentiates between 2 distinct approaches:

1 - Vin Méthode Nature: label with no added sulfites (the grapes produces them naturally)
2 - Vin Méthode Nature < 30mg/L total sulfites at bottling.

Number of member winemakers : 200 - September 2021.

➜ VinNatur

This Italian association is a collection of more than 170 producers from 10 different countries, each with their own unique story but with a common goal: to produce natural wine.

Prohibited in the vineyard:

Mineral, organic-mineral and synthetic chemical fertilizers
Chemical weed killers or drying products the use of synthetic, systemic and cytropic antiparasitics, not authorized in organic agriculture
The use of phosphites
The use of chemical insecticides
Mechanical harvesting
The cultivation of Cisgenic and GMO grapes, or the use of products derived from GMOs

Prohibited in the cellar:

Clarification using products with albumin, casein, bentonite or charcoal-based or pectic enzymes
The use of selected commercial yeasts (even if EU regulations allow it for organic wine), enzymes, lysozymes and lactic acid bacteria
The use of any foreign additives, excluding sulfur dioxide
Bottled wine must not contain more than 50 mg/liter of sulphur dioxide for white, rosé, sparkling and sweet wines, and no more than 30 mg/liter for reds.
Invasive practices that alter the intrinsic characteristics of the wine and modify the vinification process, for example: dealcoholization, heat treatment above 30°C, reverse osmosis, acidification, deacidification, electrodialysis, use of cation exchangers, elimination of sulfur dioxide by physical proccesses, deaeration, etc.

Number of member winegrowers: 170

➜ The Natural Wine Association (AVN):

The charter has evolved over the years, and now does not accept any inputs or additives. Here are the main elements of their specifications:

A wine whose grapes come from organic or biodynamic agriculture
A wine that is vinified and bottled without any input or additive.
Manual harvesting
Pasteurization is forbidden.
Enzymes are forbidden, regardless of their oenological use.
No chaptalization
Native yeasts only
No use of S02 (Analyses = 10mg/L maximum)
No tartaric stabilization
No fining
No filtration

Number of member winegrowers: not provided

➜ Les vins S.A.I.N.S.

The winemakers of the Association des Vins S.A.I.N.S. produce healthy, living wines (without inputs or added sulfites) across 100% of the winemaking process. The main elements of their criteria include:

Vineyards are free of all synthetic and molecular chemicals.
Manual harvest
In the cellar: natural fermentation which occurs only by the action of yeasts and indigenous bacteria.
A winemaker from the association adapts to the seasons and matures his wines without using laboratory products or technologies aimed to accelerate the stability or modification of the juices (at any time during the various fermentation and bottling processes).
Sulphites and other oenological inputs are prohibited.

Number of member winegrowers: not provided