Blog

Natural Wine in Turkey

 

---

I’ve mentioned a fair few times that “natural” wine drives me crazy. So, I’d like to look at what natural wine is, what it isn’t, why it annoys me, and natural wine in Turkey. 

But just to clarify before you get into the weeds of the below post: I do not actually dislike natural wine. 

What Is Natural Wine?

Well that’s a good question and it largely depends on whom you ask. Generally, though what most people agree on is:

• Grapes are farmed biodynamically, organically, and/or with sustainable practices
• Winemaking is carried out with little to no chemical or technological manipulation
• Wines are fermented spontaneously with native yeast
• No additives are allowed except a small amount of pre-bottling sulfur if needed for stabilization
• Wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined
• New oak usually isn’t used

You might also hear people talk about “low-intervention” wines. How are they different from “natural” wines? Well, they’re not entirely. Because the natural wine definition in most places is merely a generally agreed-upon definition, they can mean pretty much the same thing. Generally, low-intervention wines follow the same approach as to farming and winemaking.

And Then There’s France

I believe that, to date, France is still the only country to have legally defined what can be labeled “natural” wine. In 2020, the INAO, the body that administers French appellations, created a classification called Vin Méthode Nature with pretty strict qualifications:

• Grapes must be hand-harvested and grown organically, certified by one of the major certification organization
• Yeast must be ambient yeast found in the vineyard (aka wild yeast/wild fermentation, native, indigenous, whatever you call it)
• All additions to adjust wine such as acid, sugar, tannin, water, coloring are forbidden
• Wines should not be filtered or fined before bottling

So far so good and all of this seems both logical and fair. But what about sulfides?, I hear you asking. Yes, everyone’s favorite bugaboo. Generally sulfides won’t be added to “natural” wines…but it doesn’t mean they aren’t ever. Some producers will add a small amount just before bottling. And that’s okay under these regulations. Sulfides in Vin Méthode Nature wines cannot exceed 30 mg/l. If a wine’s natural sulfide level is below 30 mg/l and the winemaker thinks a little will help the wine remain stable, it is possible to add it before bottling. 

Other interventions not allowed under France’s legislation include things like reverse osmosis—the process used to lower or totally de-alcoholize wine. Also not allowed is heating red wine grape must (to deepen color) or pasteurization. Pasteurization, giving wine a sudden blast of heat to stabilize it, sounds weird but it isn’t uncommon. It’s actually one of the requirements for kosher mevushal wines, so you won’t see any of those labeled as Vin Méthode Nature in France. 

The Downside to Natural Wine 

Amongst the downsides to natural wine are a few faults, like “mousiness” that occur with this style of winemaking when sulfur isn’t added. You might also find volatile acidity, brettanomyces (aka brett), oxidation, or reduction in these wines. All of those can occur in wine regardless of it being “natural” or not, but these tend to occur at a higher rate in natural wine. 

Because they have not been stabilized with conventional winemaking practices like filtration or fining, natural wines also show a higher tendency of re-fermenting if they get too warm. I experienced this once in a wine bar in Ljubljana. The bartender had to open three bottles of the wine I ordered before he found one in good condition. 

I’m not saying that all natural wine carries these flaws. Far from it. However, as Jancis Robinson said, “An inconvenient truth is that it can take quite a bit of energy to keep a natural wine in perfect condition.” That extra energy (and work) is also often what makes natural wine more expensive.

What Natural Wine Isn’t

Let’s talk about what natural wine isn’t. I frequently hear people talk about amber/orange wine and natural wine interchangeably. While I see how that assumption happened, it’s important to clarify that not all natural wine is orange and not all orange wine is natural. Yes, often amber wines are natural wines, but they’re not synonymous. 

Not all natural wines have to be “funky” either. Those funky aromas/flavors are often the result of faults (like the mousiness mentioned above). Some winemakers create beautiful smooth and elegant natural wines. Why do some wines come out with that funky tilt and others don’t? It’s a bit of a reductive answer, but a lot of it comes down to hygiene, in the vineyards and in the winery. 

As hopefully became obvious with the above requirements, wine that happens to ferment spontaneously also isn’t necessarily “natural” unless it meets the other conditions. 

Buzz Word Misconceptions

You might fairly assume that I dislike natural wine. The truth is that I have have had some beautiful wines that fall in the natural/low-intervention category. My issue is largely semantic which is why I often write about “natural” wine using the quotation marks. 

Those with some wine education understand what’s meant when talking about natural wine. But for the average consumer, natural wine carries so many misconceptions. Much like many people still assume that “orange” wine is made with oranges (which is why I prefer to call it amber wine), or that Cameron Diaz’s Avaline “clean” wine is somehow healthy, they also get confused about “natural”. The term implies that conventionally-made wines are somehow unnatural, made with chemicals or other manipulations. And yes that can happen, but it’s not a given. 

My other issue with this category of wine involves all those faults. When the natural wine trend exploded, it did so with a lot of poorly made wines. Yet because the trend so captured many consumers, that funkiness that’s become synonymous with natural wine, however unfairly, was lauded. There are a lot of people who think “good” wine should taste like kombucha. If you like kombucha then I guess that’s great. I don’t know about you, but if I wanted something that tastes like that, I’d just buy the kombucha and save the money. That acceptance let people get away with making bad wine. 

Natural Wine in Turkey

Finally, we get to natural wine in Turkey. I have received any number of emails from people coming here to visit who “only drink” organic or natural wine and who want recommendations. And I bite my tongue over what I would really like to recommend…

Like a lot of buzz words, natural wine has infiltrated the Turkish wine industry. Restaurants boast natural wine lists or the word natural (doğal in Turkish) appears on labels. The problem is that many of these wines don’t meet not just the French definition of natural, but the internationally accepted general definition. They may well come from organic vineyards. Very likely they’re spontaneously fermented (that’s usually what that doğal on the label refers to), but likely they were filtered and/or fined and had more than the accepted amount of sulfur added. 

There 100% are wines here that meet the international definition of natural. They’re not easy to find and they will cost you a fortune. 

For those of us who live here, whether you drink only organic/natural wine is up to you. If that’s what you like then şerefe, enjoy. But if you’re a visitor and you plan to limit the wines you try to only what’s natural (or organic) then you’re doing yourself and the industry a disservice. We have so many beautiful wines and grapes to discover. Not to mention, drinking here is already scary expensive (especially in a restaurant), so why pay the natural wine mark up for a wine that may or may not be what you think natural means?