Pierre Frick Chasselas Sans Souffre, Alsace, France 2017 (from £18.50, etonvintners.com; forestwines.com; lescaves.co.uk) The rise of natural wine has been the most divisive development in wine in recent years. Part of the problem has been that, while most wine lovers know a natural wine when they see (or taste) one (and whether they like it or not), a legal definition of what natural wine actually is has been lacking. That’s allowed a fair bit of strawmanning on the part of natural wine’s critics, who’ve tended to seek out the worst examples (and the lax winemaking used to produce them) to generalise about the movement en masse. The announcement in March of a new officially sanctioned (by French wine authorities) category, Vin Méthode Natural, that can be used on labels by French natural wine producers who conform to a set of practices, should at least lead to more good faith argument. Although how anyone could fail to enjoy the precise, laser-guided elegance of Pierre Frick’s sulphur-free white is beyond me.
Château Lamery Autremont de Lamery, Bordeaux, France 2015 (from £21.95, josephbarneswines.com; lescaves.co.uk) The rules and regs for Vin Méthode Nature seem fairly uncontroversial to me, covering as they do pretty much all the practices that have made conscientious natural winemaking such a refreshing addition (and challenge) to the conventional wine world. To qualify, producers will, among other things, have to use handpicked grapes from organic vines. They will also (and, for those not familiar with the concept of natural wine, this is what makes it different from organic and biodynamic wine) have to do (or not do) certain things in the winery: using natural yeasts (as opposed to commercially cultivated yeasts) and satisfying strict limits on the amount of the preservative sulphur dioxide that can be added after fermentation. A number of flavour- and texture-altering techniques are also explicitly banned. It’ll be a while before the label appears on shelves. For now, wines such as the gloriously supple, hauntingly fragrant Bordeaux Autremont de Lamery, will be sold on their own terms.
Château Le Roc Le Roc Ambulle Pet Nat Rosé, Fronton, France (from £14.40, montywines.co.uk; josephbarneswines.com; lescaves.co.uk) Although the Vin Méthode Nature programme is confined to France for now, it seems likely that other countries will follow France’s lead. Part of the purpose in developing the category was to see off any charlatans using the natural wine name without really following the practice – and to allow producers to finally market their wines as natural, making it easier for fans of the style to find the wines. But not everyone in the natural wine world is happy. There’s concern, as the UK’s leading importer of natural wine (including the wines mentioned here), Les Caves de Pyrene, put it in a blog on their website, that the new bureaucratic weight could curtail the anarchic “spirit” of many natural wine producers. Personally, I’m optimistic that the sheer joie-de-vivre that comes leaping out of wines such as Le Roc’s super-light, antique method fizz will survive, no matter what’s on the label.
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