Natural Wine: Why you Should Make the Switch

Natural wine, though around since 7000 BC, has become a mark of swank in certain social circles and cities around the world due to its magical taste, purity and health benefits. As a result, natural wines are all the rage in such culinary capitals as Paris, London, Vienna, Tokyo, and New York. I visited Paris and Vienna recently to find that there were eclectic and avant garde wine bars devoted entirely to natural wine. The movement is strong and its captivating allure stems from a passion for pure, unadulterated wine that is as good for your health as the taste and smell are for your senses. Its distinction requires both an understanding of the power behind its creation as well as a madly curious palate.

Natural wine is crafted from an ancient recipe using organic grapes (because before 85 years ago, everything we ate was organic) grown from biodynamic soil and fermented without additives. That’s the simple version. A natural wine maker would have a much more elegant and elaborate description of how this artful elixir is produced. They treat their vineyards like living beings, perhaps with a bit of mysticism mixed in. For me, the real power behind this, dare I say, nostrum, is the incredible health properties it has. Nearly every Blue Zone – regions with the longest living people – has moderate alcohol consumption as part of its culture. The wine they drink, however, is not commercial wine from the supermarket; it’s all natural wine.

To fully appreciate the art of making wine naturally, one must first understand how wines are made conventionally. Archeological records show that drinking wine has been embedded in the world’s culture since around 7000 BC. The only difference between now and then is that they were actually drinking real, natural wine and our modern wine that we drink today is a concoction of more than 76 approved additives that modern winemakers can use to manipulate their wines without listing them on the label (i.e., fish bladders, metals, chemicals, acid, fake oak or berry flavor, sugars and genetically modified yeasts). Real, natural wine doesn’t have additives. That is why natural wine is also called “naked” or “raw” wine – because it is pure.

The reality is that the majority of wines lining your local liquor store shelf were made with more than just grapes. What’s more, pesticides and herbicides have become commonplace in the conventional vineyard. When chemicals began being used on a mass industrial scale post WWII, it was considered ‘progress’, but 80 years later we are beginning to ask what progress actually means. At the end of the day, the answer is subjective. The mass production of processed foods and wines has given us an inexpensive way to shop and consume. But at what cost? Our ‘progress’ has also led to a steady increase in chronic disease and a great disconnect in understanding where our food comes from, how it is grown, and what, in fact, we are actually consuming.

As a functional medicine health coach, my clients often ask me how they can enjoy wine without harming their health. With anything, especially alcohol, moderation is key, but my answer goes far beyond the alcohol itself. Most of us drink wine or alcohol without considering what is actually in it and how those ingredients can impact our health.

Let’s take a distinct look at the differences between conventional and natural wine and why, if you haven’t already, you might consider making the switch.

Conventional wine

2. The grapes used are grown with chemicals

Conventional wine grapes are grown with added pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other harmful chemicals. The use of chemicals in wine-making has grown 26x (2600%) in the last 50 years. Monsanto’s Roundup is the most widely used herbicide in U.S. vineyards today, and has been linked to numerous cancer cases worldwide.

3. High in added sugar

Many conventional wines have more sugar than a liter of cola. While all wine contains some amount of naturally occurring sugars, natural and conventional wine are not created equal. Many low-quality winemakers add sugar during the fermentation process to increase the alcohol content, or to achieve a particular flavor or sweetness.

The western world’s sugar intake has never been higher. As a result, sugar-related illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are on the rise with no signs of slowing down. It is not just about the cookies or processed foods you are eating, but added sugar is also in the wine we are drinking. 

4. GMO-yeast

Yeast is a tiny one-celled fungus that creates alcohol during fermentation. Yeast occurs naturally in our environment and is on the skin of the grapes used in winemaking. But today, conventional winemakers use cultivated GMO yeast that are added prior to the fermentation. They rely on GMO, lab-made yeasts for fermentation because of their low costs which allow for mass production. While good for business, these are not good for our health.

A medical journal in the National Library for Medicine States, “The results of most studies with GMO foods indicate that they may cause common toxic effects such as hepatic, pancreatic, renal, or reproductive effects and may alter the hematological, biochemical, and immunologic parameters.”
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18989835/) The take home message here is that GMO foods are not something that you want to be ingesting.

Natural wine producers do not add yeast, much less GMO yeast, but rather let the natural yeast that is already present on the grapes do their magic.

Natural wine

5. Dry farmed

Natural wines come from dry farmed vines that get their water from natural rainfall, which saves 16,000 gallons of water per acre. Dry farmed plants have roots that grow up to 50 feet deeper than conventional / irrigated plants, meaning they absorb more nutrients from deep within the soil. Vines are structural parasites and their root systems establish themselves in challenging soils. Given the depths that they will reach for water access, grapevines are also fairly drought-tolerant. In fact, to protect wine quality, irrigation is illegal in some of the world’s best wine regions, particularly in Europe, like Burgundy, Bordeaux, Barolo, Barbaresco, and Brunello. 

6. No added sugar

Natural wines are also fully fermented wines. Instead of adding in extra sulfites, natural winemakers allow the yeast to eat all of the natural sugar in the grapes, resulting in wines much lower in sugar. In fact, natural wines can be considered “sugar-free” at less than 1g per bottle. 

6. Low in sulfites

Many people have a sensitivity to sulfites which can contribute to side effects such as swelling, digestive pain, and headaches. Since natural wines don’t add in additional sulfites during the fermentation process, it results in wines that only contain low-levels of naturally occurring sulfites.

Natural wines have levels below 30 ppm (the US standard is 350 ppm). Sulfites kill bacteria to stabilize the wine. The lower the sulfites, the more alive a wine remains. You can see the difference under a microscope – low-sulfite wine is vibrant with a diverse spectrum of wild bacteria and yeast.

Where to get natural wine