The exact definition of natural winemaking is hard to pin down because it encompasses a diversity of approaches. We’ll give a lay of the land, then describe FRES.CO’s spot in the spectrum.
Most definitions of natural wine agree that the vineyards must be organically farmed, the fermentation must be carried out with native/ambient yeast, and the final wine must be unfiltered. The most ideologically extreme take on natural wine is known as zero / zero, and this approach allows for no additions or removals. Some definitions allow for moderate sulfur use, usually with a total sulfur of no more than 50ppm. Generally there are no other additions allowed in natural winemaking.
Although FRESCO has some unsulfured wines, most bottlings have a touch (20-40ppm) of sulfur added, usually just before bottling. After years of trying our unsulfured wines next to (otherwise) identical sulfured ones, the results are clear to us: FRESCO wines with judicious additions have more staying power, and retain fruit and structure for longer in bottle and after opening. Common winemaking additions we see in our shared winery include sulfur, yeast and yeast nutrients, and tartaric acid, but there are hundreds more. Removals are generally conducted by filters or fining agents. All additions are well researched and quite safe for consumption, but in our humble opinion they tend to make predictable wines that taste alike. There are plenty of good reasons to employ one or many of these practices, but we think we achieve better wines without them.
The most important and compelling aspect of natural wine is the requirement for organic farming. For a wine to be truly natural, it must be made from organically farmed fruit. Unfortunately, this aspect can sometimes be lost in the discourse surrounding sulfur and filtration. While organic certifications are preferable, many vineyards do not have this accreditation. It can be prohibitively expensive—and a huge time commitment—to get certified, so many growers simply don’t. It’s on the wine producer to verify that the vineyard is actually organic, and communicate that to the consumer!
We consider FRESCO wines to be natural. Most SKUs are not zero / zero, but several are, when they can handle it. Generally, our winemaking protocol uses no sulfur at crush, ambient yeast fermentation, and no added yeast nutrients. Once the wine is dry it undergoes native malolactic fermentation in barrel, where it will age for several months to a year before we rack, sulfur, and bottle it. Usually, the wines only see an addition right before bottling, when the sulfur can have the greatest effect. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) is particularly useful because it protects against oxidation AND microbial spoilage, and at the pH’s I work with, a little goes a long way. Total SO2 is always under 50 ppm at bottling, and often it’s much lower (30 ppm total is my average for sulfured wines, but this depends on pH and microbial stability).
There are always exceptions, however. Sometimes wines finish MLF before alcoholic fermentation, which can set the stage for excess volatile acidity (MLF bacteria can eat sugar and produce VA!). A touch of SO2 at this stage can keep a wine from spoiling. Sometimes my primitivo comes in too ripe, with a potential alcohol above 15%, and a modest amount of water added to the ferment yields a more balanced wine. I try not to be dogmatic about this. Occasionally I use organically derived yeast nutrients in ferments that historically stick, often when the compost plan in the vineyard is in early stages. My goal is to avoid additions unless necessary, and with everything I add, I disclose what I’ve done.
Below are a few examples where we evolved in our approach to winemaking. Sometimes fermentations don’t go according to plan, and these are often great opportunities to learn:
Case Study: 2019 Primitivo
When I made my first red wine, I dogmatically made up my mind beforehand that I wasn’t going to add yeast or anything else to help ensure my wine didn’t go off. In retrospect, this was a pretty bold move for someone who’d just gone into a lot of debt for their first business venture. The 2019 Primitivo came in at 24 brix, already fairly ripe for a native fermentation, but once the grapes were in tank, the raisinated berries soaked into solution and the brix rose past 25! The finished wine was above 16% but had a low pH (for red wine) of 3.4. The combination of high acid and high alcohol was inhibiting Malolactic fermentation, and I needed it to happen soon so the wine would be ready to bottle. I perseverated for weeks, losing sleep and going back and forth, then finally decided to water it back to just under 15%. MLF took right off and the wine was delicious. My only regret was not adding the water during fermentation, which can yield better integration and density. Now if I see those numbers on a red ferment I will proactively add a small amount of water. I ask, what’s more natural than water?
Case Study: My first truly f*****d up fermentation
FRESCO’s first truly fucked up lot of wine came from expensive Sonoma Mountain chardonnay in 2021. After fermenting happily for a few weeks, I barreled it down and assumed it would finish happily in barrel, like the prior year. This assumption was a painful learning experience. A month later, the wine was extremely volatile (like vinegar) and still sweet, around 10 g/L of glucose (noticeably sweet, and unstable if bottled). I asked several friends with both natural and traditional winemaking backgrounds what they recommended. A decent number from both camps recommended putting the wine over skins to restart the fermentation. Skins can harbor a lot of yeast and yeast nutrients, and are sometimes able to kick fermentation back into gear. At this late stage of harvest, I only had the primitivo skins left, so I poured half the chardonnay lot over the skins, and they refermented pretty easily! Of course, I now had a light reddish wine which wasn’t a single vineyard or a variety, meaning it wasn’t easily categorized or sold. I took the wine one step weirder and added apple juice and bottled it slightly sweet so it would finish fermenting in bottle as a sparkling ‘Petillant Naturel’ wine. The ‘Brutal’ was born, inspired by wines made in Spain with the same name.
I still had the other half of the f*****d up chardonnay lot, though. The conventional way to fix a wine with VA issues is to use a reverse osmosis filter, which can be configured to take out specific chemicals in a liquid. In this case we took out roughly half of the Acetic acid (AKA VA), which was preventing the wine from fermenting further. With the lower VA levels, the wine started fermenting right away, with the natural yeast that was already present, and promptly went dry. As reverse osmosis filtration is a process that makes a wine ‘not-natural,’ I was a little unsure how to proceed. It was still fermented with native yeast and came from organically farmed fruit, and was as alive as any wine I’d made…and as a fledgling company I couldn’t afford not to bottle it. After the filtration, it was missing some depth in the midpallet, so I blended in 25% Fire Fuego sauvignon blanc, which was 100% natural, and filled out the wine nicely. I felt that the wine now lived up to FRESCO’s standards. Years later this ‘White Blend’ still tastes great, and I have no regrets.
This RO experiment puts me at odds with most natural winemakers. Because I was public about the process, I still get questions from peers on whether a certain wine was filtered. I also explained the process on my website, which set me apart from the large proportion of conventional wineries who use this technology but refuse to mention it to their customers. If you’ve made it this far, you clearly care enough about what you drink to prefer wines made authentically, but my hope is that you also understand the context enough to avoid unnecessary dogma!
Natural wine is bottled while microbially alive, unlike most commercial wine where this life is filtered out or sterilized before it hits the end consumer. It is often unpredictable, sometimes even a little gross, but it’s never boring, which in our opinion is the fatal flaw of modern day wine. I love making wine this way, and even if I’ve evolved in my willingness to intervene in an individual cuvee, my goal is always to add less. We believe that the wines have more authentic, unique and delicious flavors because of our natural winemaking.
