The goal is to share the techniques and experiences used, both in the vineyard and in the cellar, to produce wine in a natural way and thus disseminate the culture of the terroir: for this VinNatur Tasting, one of the major events in the world dedicated to natural wine calls together winemakers from various European countries, who will meet againa Saturday 18 to Monday 20 April al Margraf of Gambellara, in the province of Vicenza, to face all the problems of the sector.
The VinNatur association, born in 2006, brings together small producers of natural wine from all over the world aiming to join the forces of these winemakers to give everyone greater strength, awareness and visibility, sharing experiences, studies and research. The purpose of the association is also to promote scientific research and disseminate knowledge of natural and innovative techniques. Over the years various research projects have been born between member companies and some Universities and Experimentation Centres.
At birth, there were 65 companies participating in VinNatur. Today there are 195, for a total of 1800 hectares of vineyards that produce 6 million and 500 thousand bottles of natural wine, of which about 5 million in Italy.
To join, winemakers must agree to submit their wines to analysis of residual pesticides, in order to guarantee the authenticity of the wines and these are very strict rules that include the use of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizations of the soil or leaves of chemical derivation. The greatest attention is paid to the soil and its natural balance. Research in this area concerns the attempt to eliminate copper and sulfur for the treatment of diseases, turning instead to plant extracts and natural essences that help the plant to defend itself. In the cellar we continue the work begun in the vineyard; here too, selected yeasts, additives (of any origin) and invasive techniques that do not respect the raw material are not allowed.
The objectives are to reduce or, if possible, eliminate the use of sulfur dioxide (preservative with known side effects on human health) and to perfect the practice of spontaneous fermentation, preferring the best yeasts, already present in nature, which increase the value of the wine, giving personality and uniqueness. Over the years VinNatur has greatly increased the number of participating producers reaching the current 187 companies (coming from nine different countries: Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia) compared to the starting 65. Every winegrower who asks to join the Association agrees to submit his wines to an analysis of residual pesticides. The research is carried out on 88 pesticides in order to objectively evaluate the genuineness of the wines and the coherence with the cardinal principles of the Association.
"Natural wine - explain the managers of VinNatur - derives from working methods that require the least possible number of interventions in the vineyard and in the cellar, and the absence of chemical additives and manipulations by man". These methods lead winemakers to run many risks, since the path is complex and unpredictable, and to follow it requires great awareness and extensive knowledge both in the vineyard and in the cellar.
Natural wine therefore means that it is produced: in artisanal and non-industrial quantities, by an independent producer, on vineyards with low yields per plant with healthy and pesticide-free grapes, from land suited to the production of grapes, from grapes harvested manually with particular attention to the integrity of the bunches, with grapes from organic farming (no synthetic treatment, insecticide or herbicide), without the addition of sugar, enzymes, additives, with spontaneous fermentations without the addition of yeasts selected in the laboratory but only of yeasts naturally developed in the vineyard, without acidity adjustments, without micro-oxygenation or reverse osmosis treatments, clarification and microfiltration, with a minimum use of sulphites, permitted only in unfavorable climatic-environmental conditions, without adding other additives to the wine.
In conventional viticulture up to 180 pesticide active ingredients can be used, made available by the ever-evolving chemical industry. Even in the cellar, therefore in the wine, up to 140 products and additives can be added, which do not need to be indicated on the label. In viticulture and natural enology none of this is accepted, with the exception of the use of sulfur dioxide, natural wine is often seen as the goal that the natural winemaker wants to reach. It is practically impossible to predict the result of a wine made in a natural way.
