Is Quality Control Unnecessary for Wine? The Crisis of a Lawless Territory Called "Half-Hearted Natural Wine"

Before writing this article, there is something I must clarify first. The author does not belong to any faction that could be called "anti-natural wine," nor do I have an extreme dislike for "natural wine."

I hope you will read this article with this understanding in mind.

I came across an article written by a natural wine enthusiast that contained some intriguing content.

The article explained pétillant-naturel, a natural sparkling wine. The content of that article can be summarized as follows:

• In pétillant-naturel, minimal human intervention is applied, so yeast remains alive when bottled
• As a result, secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle, creating bubbles
• The bottle is filled with carbon dioxide produced by fermentation, preventing wine oxidation and eliminating the need to add sulfites

For the sake of accuracy, I should correct that the description "secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle" is incorrect. More precisely, it should be "primary fermentation continues after bottling."

Reading such articles, I cannot help but feel that the term "natural" is increasingly becoming a kind of indulgence in today's wine industry.

Still Wine with Bubbles is a Defective Product

Among the wines I have opened, there have been several bottles where the contents erupted the moment I opened them. Note that none of these bottles were sparkling wines or pétillant wines—they were all still wines.

This blog distinguishes between sparkling wines made using carbon dioxide generated during primary fermentation and those made through secondary fermentation. Details are covered in "Complete Guide | How Sparkling Wine is Made."

If a still wine erupts upon opening, that is clearly a defect.

It is common for young white wines with screwcaps to produce slight carbon dioxide when poured into a glass after opening. This occurs because trace amounts of carbon dioxide that dissolved into the wine during fermentation remain after bottling. Naturally, there is never enough carbon dioxide remaining to cause eruption upon opening, and this phenomenon is entirely normal and not a defect.

In contrast, the reason enough carbon dioxide is generated to cause eruption is due to fermentation management failure.

The generation of such amounts of carbon dioxide means that fermentation continued in the bottle in a state beyond the winemaker's control.

Even if Intentional, Unmanaged Means Defective

I believe there is a concept among winemakers called "managed unmanagement."

Since fermentation is an extremely logical mechanism, much of it can be controlled and predicted.

Even when trying to create a lightly sparkling wine using carbon dioxide generated by fermentation, as in the pétillant example mentioned earlier, it is possible to predict how much carbon dioxide will be generated and what bottle pressure will result based on the residual sugar level at bottling. Using this principle, winemakers can theoretically relinquish control in the final stages of fermentation. Even if fermentation progresses in the bottle, it remains within their intended plan.

However, this is a major gamble.

Fermentation certainly proceeds through reactions based on clear logic. The amounts of alcohol and carbon dioxide generated from a given quantity of sugar are clearly defined as theoretical values. One molecule of glucose produces 51% ethanol and 49% carbon dioxide. However, in reality, due to the production and volatilization of fermentation byproducts, ethanol production typically falls within the range of 45-49%.

This means there is already a variation of 2-6% from the theoretical value at this point.

Can winemakers really treat the results of this variation as "within the predictable range"?

The Fear Brought by "Byproducts"

The fermentation process is extremely delicate. As discussed in articles "Let's Talk About Fermentation" and "What Fermentation Fears Most," fermentation is influenced by many factors including ambient temperature, liquid temperature, and yeast count.

Such influences tend to be greater with "natural" wild yeasts than with "artificial" dried yeasts. Ironically, natural wild yeasts actually require more careful management during fermentation.

Wild yeasts are covered in the article "The Merits and Demerits of Wild Yeast."

When we say fermentation is affected, we tend to think simply about whether fermentation stops or not, but this is actually different. When fermentation is affected, it secondarily influences the types and quantities of fermentation byproducts generated in the process.

These fermentation byproducts affect the wine's taste, aroma, and mouthfeel nuances. Moreover, if tartrates precipitate in the fermenting bottle, they become nucleation sites that make bubbles more likely to form, resulting in contents erupting upon opening.

Most problematically, these reactions occur individually in each bottle, similar to the "bottle secondary fermentation method" explained in "Complete Guide | How Sparkling Wine is Made," creating very large variations between individual bottles. It is virtually impossible to predict all of these factors within an acceptable range. In other words, quality cannot be guaranteed.

Cannot Natural Wine be Controlled?

In most cases, pétillant is made by injecting carbon dioxide into finished wine to create light sparkle. There is no point in deliberately bottling wine during primary fermentation to continue fermentation in the bottle.

Such practices only introduce unnecessary risks.

When using the method of injecting carbon dioxide afterward, whether the base wine is natural wine is naturally irrelevant. Therefore, natural wines can also be made into pétillant using this technique, and from a quality control perspective, this approach should be recommended.

Yet they deliberately choose the risky method.

They ship wine without managing fermentation to completion, leaving gas levels, residual sugar amounts, flavor variations, and wine quality all unstable. This is neither free nor natural—it is simply reckless and irresponsible.

I have no intention of denying all natural wine producers, but such practices are undeniably more common among wines calling themselves natural. Most regrettably, those who hold the title of natural wine winemaker often harbor thoughts that reject conventional winemaking. And they end up doing things like putting grape berries in bottles.

Not Unable to Control, but Unwilling to Try

Recent trends suggest that natural wines are not uncontrollable, but rather that wines deliberately abandoning control are being labeled as natural wines.

I do not oppose incorporating new or seemingly unconventional techniques. However, I believe it is meaningless if such approaches exist merely to blindly reject conventional methods or arise from misunderstanding their true meaning.

Even natural wines can be controlled, and wines made this way should be capable of achieving high quality.

As stated in the article "Reasons for Buying Natural Wine," currently natural wine and natural wine labels alone can command high prices. However, as revealed by the survey results cited in that article, consumers are not making purchasing decisions based on evaluating the wines as delicious.

Should not producers reconsider creating their wines with proper consciousness, rather than relying on the indulgence of "natural wine" and "natural wine" labels?

検索

Search