Join us at our Lake Street location Tuesday, February 21st from 5pm-7pm as Pastoral's Wine Buyer, Mark Hayes presents "Hands Off!", a free wine tasting highlighting wines made with minimal human intervention.

In the past year or so, the term "Natural Wines" has garnered much attention from every component of the wine market. From end consumer to importer to producer, this contentious segment of the market has proven to be rather polarizing. The name itself intuitively implies "unnatural wines" exist. As a producer, or distributor, or retailer, or consumer, it is rather intuitive that a clear definition for this wine buzz word is in order. As with everything regarding wine, the answer just isn't that simple.

Winemaker's touting "Natural" vinification champion organic and biodynamic practices in the vineyard, but also stress the importance of fermenting with indigenous yeast, and not using modern techniques (malolactic fermentation, chapitalization, acidification, etc) or using additives to achieve more globally desirable flavor profiles. In some circles, the use of wood barrels is shunned. The addition of sulphites is certainly the cause of much debate as well. Natural wines will often declare "no additional sulphites", some will declare "no sulphites" or "no detectable sulphites". Sulphites have been used as a preservative and means to correct flaws in wines from the beginning of time. Overuse of Sulphites is abhorrent as the chemical, although naturally occurring in almost everything, is indeed a poison in higher concentrations (see cheap wine hangover). Regardless of the secondary debate over Sulphites, the working definition of natural wine is probably best viewed as wines produced sustainably, organically, and biodynamically and vinified with minimal human intervention.

Herein lies the debate, do winemakers using modern methods sparingly to produce balanced wines with integrity each year producing "unnatural wines"? Is a "natural wine" full of flaws due to poor vintage or lack of skill of winemaker better than the that of the "intervening" winemaker?

The answer, like many things, is subjective and the debate, like most debates, is too loud and often irrelevant. I am reminded of the response from an Italian winemaker when asked why he didn't market his wines as organic or natural although his production style "qualified". He answered, "my family has been producing wines of this style for 600 years, it's like showing up to the opera in a t-shirt that says "I showered"." I suppose if this debate brings out a little more transparency and awareness of the process and additives in some wines, it deserves its place in the conversation.

Come see what all the fuss is about and sample a fantastic line-up of 9 wines made with minimal human intervention. Regardless of definition or compartmentalization, Pastoral is proud to showcase these minimally coerced selections.