Featuring Some Natural & Low Intervention Wine Selections Tasting Date & Discount Info-Thank you for joining our virtual wine tasting! It's wonderful to have you. Saturday, September 25th at 6:00PM, we will be tasting through some of our favorite Alternative Summer wine selections. Your guide will be our knowledgeable associate, Sebastian. Also, we would like to offer you a special promotional code that will take 15% off 12 or more bottles of wine (some exclusions apply). Use code "PA3" during checkout. For Free Local Delivery within the Princeton Area, please enter "FREESHIP" during checkout. Tasting Summery-While no legal definitions of natural wine currently exist, various official-ish ones do, set by
groups of growers in various countries, including France, Italy and Spain. These
self-regulated charters of quality are far stricter than regulations imposed by official organic
or biodynamic certification bodies.
All require a minimum of organic farming in the vineyard but prohibit the use of any additives,
processing aids or heavy manipulation equipment in the cellar, with the exception of gross
filtration, which most tolerate and sulfites, which varies according to association. The French
S.A.I.N.S., for example, is the strictest of all, not allowing additives whatsoever but tolerating
gross filtration. For the AVN, total levels of sulfites are set at 30 mg/l for red and sparkling
wines while totals for whites are 40 mg/l (regardless of residual sugar). While for Italian-based
VinNatur a blanket total maximum sulfite level of 50 mg/l applies across the board. Level 3 of
the Renaissance des Appellations is also very strict on all aspects of additives and
processing used but remains vague on permissible total sulfite levels. For the purpose of the
Pantry, all wines featured comply with VinNatur’s totals, in order to be able to include a wide
range of examples, but in any case, total levels are included so you can make up your own
mind. Natural Wine is farmed organically (biodynamically, using permaculture or the like) and made
(or rather transformed) without adding or removing anything in the cellar. No additives or
processing aids are used, and ‘intervention’ in the naturally occurring fermentation process is
kept to a minimum. As such neither fining nor (tight) filtration are used. The result is a living
wine – wholesome and full of naturally occurring microbiology. Given that the microbiological
life of the vineyard is what enables both successful fermentations in the cellar and the
creation of wine that is able to survive without a technological crutch, sustaining a healthy
habitat in the vineyard for these microbes is fundamental for the natural wine grower. This
microbiological life follows the grapes into the cellar, transforms the juice and even makes its
way into the final wine in the bottle. Natural wine is therefore, literally, living wine from living
soil. In its truest form, it is wine that protects the microcosm of life in the bottle in its entirety,
keeping it intact so that it remains stable and balanced. However, production is not a
question of black and white. As with everything in life, problems arise and commercial
realities inevitably inform choices. Natural wine growers can sometimes lose all their
production. Minor interventions, therefore, (such as the restrained use of SO2 at bottling
for instance) can provide both a sense of security for the grower and a readjustment of
the microbial life, if aberrations threatening quality begin to occur, while also minimally
impacting the wine. What’s more, while producing wines that are ‘nothing added-nothing
removed’ takes enormous skill, awareness and sensitivity, it isn’t always, every natural
grower’s intention. Natural wine is a continuum, like ripples on a pond. At the epicentre of these ripples, are
growers who produce wines absolutely naturally – nothing added and nothing removed. As
you move away from this centre, the additions and manipulations begin, making the wine
less and less natural, the further out you go. Eventually, the ripples disappear entirely,
blending into the waters of the rest of the pond. At this point the term ‘natural wine’ no longer
applies. You have moved into the realm of the conventional. | 
