Why Natural Wine?
Before we explain why we chose natural wine (also referred to as low or minimal intervention wine) let's define what natural wine really is at this moment.
Before last year, there was no official definition or certification in the world of natural wine. In 2020, the French government became the first and only to create an official certification dubbed vin méthode nature, that can be used to label natural wine made in France. They defined natural wine made in France as: grapes which must carry organic certification, be hand-picked and fermented using indigenous/native yeasts.
Here, at Unfined Wines, we define natural wine similarly; grapes must be farmed organically (no chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, etc.), hand-picked and produced with as little intervention as possible.
So now, why natural wine?
Some of the biggest differences between conventional wine and natural wine are below. When we learned more about natural wine, it was a no-brainer. We've been sipping clean ever since.
| Conventional Wine | Natural Wine |
| Grown with pesticides and herbicides | Plants or natural oils are used to ensure soil is healthy without chemicals |
| Machine picked: damaged grapes breed bacteria | Always handpicked |
| Uses lab produced yeast | Uses only yeast found on the grapes in the vineyard |
| Uses fining agents like fish guts and egg whites to make wine clear. In addition to 60+ additives | Mostly unfined and unfiltered |
There are many more benefits to drinking natural wine, but at the core, the 4 points above are our biggest deterrents to conventional wine. Some others include, much less sugar - natural wine only contains sugar produced naturally by the grapes, nothing added to manipulate taste. It is also said by many that they don't get the headaches or hangovers that they do with conventional wine, but we'll let you figure that one out.
At Unfined Wines, we believe wine should be an extension of the organic and healthy food that you put in your stomach, your farm-to-table. Why drink wine with artificial ingredients that has been technologically manipulated. We decided to dedicate our time to advocate for natural wine and hand-pick wine that meets higher standards. We want you to taste the difference. We want you to feel better. We want you to support wine makers that care about the environment and what goes into your body. This is how wine making used to be before it became commercialized in the 1960s. 60 years later, we are more conscious about what goes into our bodies and how we treat our environment, we are going back to the roots of our ancestors and bringing back wine that’s made better, for you. We taste every wine we hand-pick for you, backed by countless hours of research to ensure they meets our standards. We bring you WINE WITHOUT THE BULLSHIT.
What we love the most about natural wine is that every bottle has its own persona, unlike most conventional wine whose taste has been streamlined through chemical intervention, just as in the world of fast food. Every natural wine bottle induces an emotional reaction and tells the story of where it came from (terroir) with a much more complex flavor profile. We believe you don’t need fancy wine terms or be a wine expert to drink natural wine. For us, it's about approachability, you shouldn’t feel intimidated to ask questions or feel like you have to drink it in a certain way, we are here to make the process easy with wines that are easy. There are no rules, you define your own rules.
