{"id":1905,"date":"2012-02-01T10:29:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T10:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1905"},"modified":"2012-02-04T16:24:37","modified_gmt":"2012-02-04T16:24:37","slug":"natural-wine-the-debate-rages-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/natural-wine-the-debate-rages-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural Wine &#8211; the debate rages on."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The debate rages on about &#8216;natural&#8217; wines and I, for one, am\u00a0delighted that such a respected and great winemaker as Michel Chapoutier has now\u00a0spoken out against this new trend, deriding it as a <em>&#8216;connerie<\/em>&#8216;. Please don&#8217;t get me wrong, we have been buying wines for over two decades that are made as naturally as possible, and are positively in favour of those wine makers who champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.morethanorganic.com\/lutte-raisonnee\">&#8216;la lutte raisonn\u00e9e&#8217;<\/a>, sustainability, and organic or biodynamic viticulture, so long as they are making great wine. But this\u00a0new trend for &#8216;natural&#8217; wines leaves us rather\u00a0cold, since most of the wines remind me of the rather oxidative and alcoholic cider that I tasted as a boy, made by the\u00a0Carthusian monks at Parkminster Abbey in Sussex, and which\u00a0I could only assume they\u00a0drank\u00a0in order to keep their vow of silence.<\/p>\n<p>Here is\u00a0an extract from Decanter magazine:<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Renowned Rhone producer Michel Chapoutier has added to the natural wine debate by denouncing natural winemakers as out-of-touch hippies making defective wines. Interviewed in the current issue of Decanter, Chapoutier tells John Livingstone-Learmonth the practice of natural winemaking \u2013 that is, using no sulphur dioxide to stabilise the wines \u2013 is a con. \u2018It is a <em>connerie<\/em>. It is rubbish. It\u2019s like making vinegar, bad vinegar. How can anyone allow toxic yeasts to develop so that these inhabit the wine?\u2019 Moreover the Hermitage producer, who also makes wine in Australia, Portugal and Alsace, considers those who follow the practice, \u2018hippies from another world\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It is extraordinary that people defend products with defects on the grounds that in the past growers were making wines with defects, so that is good, or natural. Those old wines had defects because people lacked the tools and means not to make fault-free wines.\u2019 Natural winemaking has a long history of attracting fiercely opposing views. In a recent column in Decanter, Andrew Jefford suggested that although the method could produce an undreamt-of \u2018landscape of aroma and flavour\u2019, it was also teetering on the edge of \u2018charlatanry\u2019. No winemaker, he argued, \u2018should\u2026 fold their arms and stare righteously at the ceiling while their wines turn malodorously delinquent through neglect.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>As cutting edge as we might be at Lea &amp; Sandeman, we will not bow to trends that promote bad wine!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The debate rages on about &#8216;natural&#8217; wines and I, for one, am\u00a0delighted that such a respected and great winemaker as Michel Chapoutier has now\u00a0spoken out against this new trend, deriding it as a &#8216;connerie&#8216;. Please don&#8217;t get me wrong, we have been buying wines for over two decades that are made as naturally as possible, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,151],"tags":[818],"class_list":["post-1905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-wine","category-science-technology-or-witchcraft-and-wizardry","tag-natural-wine"],"contentshake_article_id":"","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Natural Wine - the debate rages on.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The debate rages on about &#039;natural&#039; wines and I, for one, am\u00a0delighted that such a respected and great winemaker as Michel Chapoutier has now\u00a0spoken out\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/natural-wine-the-debate-rages-on\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Natural Wine - the debate rages on.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The debate rages on about &#039;natural&#039; wines and I, for one, am\u00a0delighted that such a respected and great winemaker as Michel Chapoutier has now\u00a0spoken out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/natural-wine-the-debate-rages-on\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lea &amp; Sandeman Wine Merchants | Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LeaandSandeman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-01T10:29:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-04T16:24:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog-2207a.kxcdn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Ampersand.jpg?format=webp&quality=95&bg=ffffff\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"714\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"714\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick Sandeman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@leaandsandeman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@leaandsandeman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Sandeman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Natural Wine - the debate rages on.","description":"The debate rages on about 'natural' wines and I, for one, am\u00a0delighted that such a respected and great winemaker as Michel Chapoutier has now\u00a0spoken out","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/natural-wine-the-debate-rages-on\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Natural Wine - the debate rages on.","og_description":"The debate rages on about 'natural' wines and I, for one, am\u00a0delighted that such a respected and great winemaker as Michel Chapoutier has now\u00a0spoken out","og_url":"https:\/\/www.leaandsandeman.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/02\/natural-wine-the-debate-rages-on\/","og_site_name":"Lea &amp; 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