Natural Wine: How au naturel before we lose the point?

Allow me to have my quarterly rant.

In the last few weeks I have been bombarded with so much information about organic and “natural” wines, "natural yeast" vs. “unnatural yeast” (Ahem – native yeast vs. “cultivated” yeasts. All yeast is natural.) and even “going green.” There is so much discussion on these topics that I am going green - from nausea. How much more natural can we make our wines, apart from our winemakers and cellar rats working in the wineries au naturel? When it comes to alcoholic beverages I have always considered wine as being the most natural, as wine is not distilled. It is not brewed. It is picked "fresh" from the vineyards and immediately transported to the winery to be fermented into wine.

It’s even been suggested that the government steps in again and make wineries add their ingredients, serving size, nutritional and caloric intake to their already congested labels. How romantic the art and craftsmanship of winemaking will become - not! Let alone that someone is going to have to pay those costs to meet the requirements. That "someone" is the consumer.

Hey people – didn’t we learn anything from the sulfite fiasco? The listing of sulfites on wine bottles caused much unnecessary hysteria and unfair blame with very inaccurate and self-diagnosed “allergies.” When studies came out from UC Davis, it was determined sulfites affected 1% of the population in the US. And more than likely, half of the 1% didn’t even drink wine.

In past discussions I have had regarding sulfites, the majority who were against sulfites in their wine didn’t realize there were more sulfites in their dried fruit and in many of their dehydrated backpacking meals, then in a glass of wine. Over and over I have listened to customers in tasting rooms tell me they could only drink white wine because all the sulfites in red wine gave them headaches (ahem - slightly higher sulfite amounts in white). Once I explained to a white wine drinker that sulfites were natural and found in the soil, plants and in fact that the human body produces about 1000 mg/day, which would be 100 times more than in a single glass of wine. They responded very seriously with, "Well, that explains why I am allergic to myself."

See me rolling my eyes? Since the FTC, FDA and ATB likes disclosures and labels, here's mine:

I am not a HATER against wholesome, natural foods and wine! I am a label reader. I drive across town to buy “organic” meats and free-range eggs. Buying local and seasonal foods are a priority for me. I was raised on "organic" meats and vegetables before we knew of this trendy term, "organic." Hey, I even did my time as a vegan in my glory days. In the 80's I stopped buying canned tuna because of commercial fishing practices netting dolphins along with the tuna - - and I haven't bought a can of tuna since.

I am proud to say our local wine community has a voluntary group of winemakers and growers who have formed VINEA - Winegrower's Sustainable Trust and have embraced environmentally-friendly and socially responsible viticultural practices. And laugh at me or not, I think one of our local winemakers may be onto something with his witchy wine practices by the taste of his esquisite wines. But what would the future hold for him? Will he have to list the ingredients of the compost mixture he used to fill the cow horn he buried in his vineyards?

It gets even crazier when you consider while we pontificate and demand "natural" wines, we will overlook that some of our finest wine crystal glasses we drink our "natural" wines out of are made with over 24% lead.

This is what I am a HATER of: misinformation, unnecessary hysteria and extreme measures. I also fear that with all of the trendy movement towards "natural, organic and green" we will move it right into a moral and class issue. It doesn't mean that families with many mouths to feed on a limited income doesn't care any less about their children if they have to stretch their food dollars by purchasing a 99 cent bag of carrots and a box of Quaker oats instead of a $3 bag of organic carrots and a handwoven hemp bag full of oats hand plucked by barefoot virgins. At this point, I would just like to see more families return to the kitchen and the dining table instead of tossing a sack of Mac-Shac at the kid in the back seat.

So how far shall we, as consumers, push it? How about if we start demanding that all independent restaurants and cafes list all ingredients and nutritional information on their menu's or slap a label on the table when we are served our entrees? Talk about putting a damper on a special or impromptu evening under candle light. Oh yeah, is the candle burning made from soy or paraffin hydrocarbon (aka wax kerosene)? And who will pick up these added costs? Shall we push further and force the Colonel to list his secret 11 herbs and spices on the KFC bucket? And will we insist his spices are Fair Trade Certified and the herbs are organic wild and not hothouse?

Shall the winemaker have to expose his skill and methods with each unique vintage and be reduced to tweaking a formula and even risking his vintage and harvest to comply with government labeling and "natural" standards?

And here's the irony of getting oneself in a dither about "natural" wines and being an alarmist when it comes to sulfites and what type of yeast were used produce a bottle of wine: How many people have died due to addictions and liver disease that have been the direct cause due to sulfites? How many people have died after they wrapped their car around a telephone pole due to drinking 350 ppm of sulfites (parts per million with 350 ppm being the maximum legal limit) in their wine? How many fatal car accidents have been the direct cause of cultured yeast? I can hear it now - the coroner stating, "If they would have drank wine fermented with native yeast instead of cultured yeast they might have walked away from the fiery wreck."

The alcohol is going to get you before the sulfites, calcium carbonate, asorbic acids and cultured yeasts ever will. To sum it up:

"All things in moderation, including moderation." — Mark Twain.