I was first introduced to natural wines in 2019 by Spa Esprit Group’s founder and CEO Cynthia Chua. What started as an interview morphed into a casual crash course on natural wines. The bottle we sampled was the Domaine Christian
Binner Si Rose. From the first sip, I understood why she described natural wines as “alive”. Light and bright, it was effervescent with pronounced rose notes and a citrus acidity. Its fizziness and sour notes, coupled with its cloudy appearance, reminded me of kombucha.
Not all natural wines are created equal. Some are pure and crystalline, while others are funky – a catch-all term that describes sharp, yeasty flavours and unconventional profiles.
Chua first discovered natural wines at a lunch in Paris, realising that they go down easy: “If I have a standard glass of red at lunch, I’ll feel like I need to go to bed.” Her claim has been widely debated. While some argue that sulphites and preservatives added to conventional wines cause hangovers and headaches, the compound is naturally present in trace amounts in all fermented beverages.
GROWER TO GLASS
Natural wines, meanwhile, are made with minimal intervention. “Nothing is added. Nothing is taken away,” Chua explains. They are made from organic grapes grown without pesticides or herbicides, and then vinified without additives, added yeasts or preservatives. Sulphites – used to preserve the taste of the wine at the time of bottling – are avoided or used in tiny amounts.
All that’s left is for nature to develop the wine’s flavour. In the words of Alvin Gho, Co-Founder of RVLT, a natural wine is “more nature, less human”.
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Prestige Singapore.
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This story is from the November 2020 edition of Prestige Singapore.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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