Wine Tasting: Natural Wines

 

After 16 months of pandemic isolation, it was an enormous pleasure to have people over, inside, without masks (all fully vaxxed, of course). Thanks to all who came and reminded all of us what in-person festivities are like! 

This time around, we sampled what "natural wines" have to offer. I relied on a few recommendations, but mostly let the fine folks at The Punchdown in Oakland do the picking. All in all, I would say that they were...well...interesting. I generally find that many natural wines smell and taste surprising, which is to say far afield from what the varietal or region would have you otherwise expect. That's sometimes a delight...and sometimes not. At their best, natural wines have a liveliness and fresh vigor that conventional wines lack. At their worst, they can be yeasty, out of balance, and thin on the palate. So you're probably best ordering them at a restaurant that really cares about their wine list and did the culling for you. 

Here's what we had, with my favorites in bold: 

1. 2020 Joe Swick "City Pop", Willamette Valley, Oregon ($30): Orange pét nat, sealed with a bottle cap, and thus naturally sparkling! It starts with Pinot Noir direct pressed and fermented separately. Then blend with Semillon, Roussanne, Verdelho, and Sauvignon Blanc fermented with 14 days of skin maceration. I liked it, impressed that the tannin from skin contact didn't come out too strongly with the bubbles. 
2. 2019 La Clarine Farms "Viognier", Sierra Foothills, California ($25): Direct, whole cluster pressed and fermented in flextanks, with the second lot picked just going into the already fermenting first lot. Only ambient yeasts were used, full malolactic fermentation. Lovely, simple, quaffable. Demonstrates that not all natural wines have to be funky, cloudy, and weird. :-)
3. 2019 Radovan Šuman "Renski" rizling, Štajerska, Slovenia ($69): Now this one is weird. Fully orange, from an earthenware tankard. It is 7 days macerated with stems and skins (delivering both color and tannin). No added yeasts, spontaneous fermentation, unfiltered, 2 years aged in oak barrels, with no added sulfur. I like it, but many hated it. Certainly not what you expect from a riesling, but if you approach it as an orange wine, I thought it was pretty great. I can't get behind that price, tho. 
4. 2018 Radikon "Rosso", Fruili, Italy ($40): from the Oslavia region of Friuli, right by the border with Slovenia, this is a biodynamic Merlot and Pignoli blend, 18 months in 1,000 gallon oak barrels. This was the most "controversial" wine of the evening, described by some as "wine kombucha" and "great if you think of it as a lambic." Effervescent, yeasty, presenting with lots of sweet fruit.   
5. 2016 L'Austral "Saumur Cuvée 253" cabernet franc, Loire Valley, France ($24): from vines planted in 2002-03, manually harvested, maceration for 60 days, then aged for 9 months in concrete eggs. This goes to show that in France, even when they go "natural," they really can't help making varietally true wines. Well made, well balanced, this delivered a faceful of green pepper and stemmy qualities that I associate with cab franc. Good value, but not terribly interesting, I thought. 
6. 2020 Agricola Luyt Pipeño Coronel, Maule, Chilé ($24, 1 litre): this has the best "natural wine" story of the night. A Frenchman discovers the largely ignored Pais grapes that have been growing for 200+ years in Chilé, farmed organically without irrigation, hand-harvested, manually destemmed with traditional zaranda baskets, fermented naturally without additives in open-topped oak lagares. He then launches a movement to bring this rustic, local wine to the world. I thought this was great wine, dominated by smoky notes and good mid-palate body. And a great value. The only wine of the night I'm thinking of buying more of. 
7. 2019 Cantina Giardino "Re" Aglianico, Campania, Italy ($29): the first of two Italian aglianico varietals, this from old vineyards in Irpinia, high in the hills of Campania. All the usual natural wine hallmarks: unfiltered, organic, manual harvest, fermented naturally for months without temperature control in terracotta amphorae and large casks made from local woods, with no additions at all. I thought this was lovely, well-balanced, showing lovely dark fruit. 
8. 2018 Molettieri Don Giovanni Aglianico, Campagnia, Italy ($20): I could find almost no information about this wine. I thought it was nice, but outclassed by #7.