It’s been almost 10 years since Isabelle Legeron’s book “Natural Wine: An introduction to organic and biodynamic wines made naturally” release, a defining moment for many wine enthusiasts and — especially — younger audiences rebelling against what once used to be the only the “classic realm” of wine (normally called “conventional” these days).
I flew to Paris to have a first ever look at RAW Wine Fair held my the Master of Wine. Unlike many sociophobic writers who cannot stand to actually talk to people Isabelle seems to be a doer and organiser in addition to being a writer. During RAW Paris we had a chance to sit down for a 30-minute talk.
“Organic and biodynamic wines “made naturally” are the same for me as “natural wine”, originally I just wanted to introduce the idea of farming in the title of the book. Because we talk a lot about natural wine, but we don’t talk about organic and biodynamic farming, people are very focused on tasting profile and sulphites. So I wanted the book’s title to be clear about this. In 2014 the term “natural wine” wasn’t that known. Back then I wasn’t hesitating with the name, because it is what it is, natural wine.
Where do I see myself today? I am a friend of the producers, I guess I have different “hats”, the RAW Wine “hat” helps them to access the new markets, meet people. My personal goal to be honest that I want as many people as possible to drink natural wine, because the goal is to change farming and I want us to have an impact on a big scale.
I want growers to have better exposure, better markets, better representation, better importers. Not all of them is selling everything, some are still struggling, so we would like to reach as many trade industries and as many consumers as possible. Because consumers are people making that change, we have to focus on educating them.
Should natural winemakers be celebrities? You know, some of them are, in different markets. But I don’t think we should necessarily go down this road, I believe that they must be more grassroot. Of course it’s very useful to have famous people as part of the natural movement: they draw the masses and showcase their success stories, but I think our approach is to try and reach wine drinkers, because sometimes there’s resistance to involve drinkers into tastings where members of the public are invited. In many cases they are trade-only or professionals-only events, but I think it’s short-sighted.
Many people are looking to reduce natural wines to SO2 content, but it’s not so simple and only education can change that. Sulphites are not the only thing that kill life, there’s filtration, heating and many other things. Even below 20 grams there are still plenty of ways to make the wine not so natural.
Take glass bottles, there’s a lot of discussion about that. Seeing the color of wine is amazing, but (clear) glass production is one of the biggest impacts on environment. There’s a huge pressure on growers, because the sales are much bigger if you sell in clear glass. As a category we should avoid clear glass: use green glass that is recycled. So saying that you want to drink environmentally friendly wines in clear glass doesn’t make much sense.
Defining “styles” of natural wines for consumers is a dangerous territory where you’re risking to become the “tasting police”. Your “dirty” could be my “normal”. Moreover, wines develop in bottles so much! What could be done is to somehow indicate the added sulphites, but not the “style”.
Personally, I’m not putting my judgment on wines, I am not playing God, my job is to make sure that people who participate in RAW, farm well, naturally, they are here for the right reasons, and with their heart and produce wines that are natural or low-intervention”.