"Vin Méthode Nature" a new trend?

The latest market research published by Wine Intelligence describes an increase in the consumption of "natural" wines. It's a relatively new term for many wine drinkers around the world, but one that they're showing a growing interest in.

In 2020 France obtained the right to sell wines officially recognized as "natural", a formal classification under the name "Vin Méthode Nature" which will be certified after a monitoring period.

These wines obtained through low interventions on both the soil, the vines, and the wine have become appreciated and attractive to a niche segment of wine consumers "involved wine consumers who take personal and social pride in experimenting and discovering of wine and who learned about the concept of natural wine from enthusiastic sommeliers, wine shop managers, and well-informed friends."

From my point of view the terms "clean wine" and "natural wine" (convenient abbreviation of the French name "vin méthode nature" used in the description and presentation of this type of wine, induce confusion among consumers but at the same time the use of the terms gives a positive positioning of this wine to the detriment of "conventional wine".

In the presentation of these wines, atypical tasting notes appear cloudy, heavy wine, with the smell of earth and mushrooms, which can become a real threat if these notes are associated with those that describe a quality wine.

Jancis Robinson notes in one of his articles "The major reason for going to the trouble of getting this new designation recognized – apart from distinguishing the genuinely natural wines from more commercial imitations – is to reduce the likelihood of natural wines being rejected by the local tasting panels that have, until now, too often dismissed them as ‘atypical’. The Vin Méthode Nature logo should provide some armor.”

It is surprising how in a few years a movement started in France, by a small group of producers, ended up dividing wines into "conventional wine" and "natural wine", given that this type of wine is not officially considered a category or distinct subcategory, as "organic" or "biodynamic" wine.

The vast majority of wine consumers associate the word "wine" with a natural product, having a simple and direct production process that involves harvesting grapes, obtaining the must, fermenting it, and obtaining the finished product - wine. Even if in essence the process of obtaining conventional wine has ended up being one of finesse which, through the use of various technologies, manages to offer spectacular wines, the final product, wine, is still a natural product.

In order for the wines to be labeled with the "Vin Méthode Nature" label, they must be made from 100% certified organic, hand-picked grapes. Fermentation is carried out exclusively spontaneously with natural yeasts, inoculation with selected yeasts and the use of other fermentation bacteria are not allowed. The use of oenological additives or auxiliary means of processing as well as any reverse osmosis, filtration, tangential filtration, or thermovinification techniques is prohibited.

The use of sulfites is not allowed before or during fermentation, nor at any other winemaking stage. Sulfites can be added to the finished wine (regardless of color and style) up to a maximum of 30 mg/l SO2total. The use of added sulfites will be notified by a dedicated logo.

The "Vin Méthode Nature" label is awarded every year and for every harvest after an inspection carried out by the Syndicat de Defense des Vins Naturels.

All these limitations imposed in obtaining the wine lead to inconsistency of their quality and characteristics from one year to another. Natural yeasts can in one year lead to obtaining a dry wine and the following year from the same variety to obtain a demi-dry or even sweet wine if they stop fermentation. Because they have not undergone conventional stabilization processes such as filtering or clarification, finished natural wines can ferment if they get too warm when stored or transported. Various pathogenic fermentations can also occur considering that in the final wine the level of sulfites does not exceed 30 mg/l, which provides insufficient antioxidant and preservative protection.

It takes a lot of energy and care to keep a natural wine in perfect condition and to get a good quality of them every year, so the question is how many producers will want to be part of this movement and who will be able to certify these wines with such strict rules at the time the number of producers would exceed several hundred, and they would be distributed on several continents.

Sébastien David, the representative of the Syndicat de Defense des Vins Naturels said that once they have more than 400 producer members, the French authorities will take over the monitoring to provide a certification of these wines. In 2020, there were only 140 entities registered in the union, of which only 50 were wine producers.

Jancis Robinson "It would be impossible to monitor all the relevant vineyards to check that no harvesters were seen there. And how do you check that no commercial culture yeast has been inoculated? Especially since it's common for winemakers to keep their yeast cultures from one harvest to the next. How can you determine their origin?”

The link between wine and nature remains a powerful marketing tool for the wine industry, and even though many producers use part of the "Vin Méthode Nature" winemaking rules, they need to make a much greater effort to promote it, given the limited use of the logo of the

The questions remain:

Will all these imposed restrictions be able to generate a consistent trend so that as many manufacturers as possible join or will it remain only at the concept level and a marketing tool for a limited category of manufacturers?

Are consumers sufficiently interested in such wines that the production of these wines becomes an "obligation" of the producers?