On the recent creation of Vin Methode Nature by Monty Waldin (11 May 2020)
I have always regarded independent third party certification as essential, especially for cuddly yet cut-throat, speciously Cartesian industries like the wine trade.
To be clear, no certification system is foolproof. Even familiar signifiers–organic, Biodynamic, natural, sustainable, salmon-safe–often compound rather than clarify our collective potential confusion.
But as in sport, yardsticks and baselines provide at least a sense of a level playing field, and of clarity. Not for quality–this will remain subjective; but for a rules-based order, the cornerstone of civilized societies and industries.
The fact that some key thought leaders in the natural wine arena negated the need for certification for so long (some still do) was never really about a lack of money, to pay certification fees, or time lost to the bureaucratic burdens as was frequently claimed. (Plenty of ‘naturals’ had already paid for organic or Biodynamic certification and enjoyed state subsidies for 3 years, in Europe at least as a result).
All wineries spend time on paperwork and on record-keeping. They also spent money (production levies) to get an AOC, DOC, DOCG, AOP, AVA, IGP, IGT or even VDT on their label. Some of that ‘lost’ money eventually returns albeit indirectly, via grants, on improving the region eg. via terroir-mapping to improve rootstock choices for example, or on promotion.
And small-scale certified organic and Biodynamic wine-growers learnt early that certification audits were a key tool to re-examine one’s production cycle and eliminate superfluous external inputs–vineyard sprays, winery tools, and packaging.
Making organic certification obligatory for Vin Méthode Nature will facilitate market access to pro-organic, deep pocketed state alcohol monopolies and smaller wine traders.
I was surprised to see an owner winemaker at one of the the first natural wine fairs I attended. He said organic certification was both expensive (he sported a bespoke suit and silk Hermès tie I kid you not) and superfluous as his winery was both very famous and well reputed (it is). He forgot to mention the real reason he was not certified organic was because he’d spot spray troublesome parcels with systemic fungicides when needed.
So why moan for so long at having to pay for a ‘Certified Vin Nature’ stamp? Especially if this will help weed out more, if not all of the transgressors. My sense was some ‘wild ferment’ wines were made using second-hand barrels purchased from third-party growers, some of whom had non-organic vineyards and used cultured yeasts. This risked spray residues ending up in the natural wine, and the possibility of an only partially ‘wild’ ferment too.
Accepting certification will have no adverse effects on natural wine. Natural wine fairs will still be filled with charismatic growers, enthusiastic punters and wines we like and wines we’d rather avoid. Just like any other wine fair.
What it will do is to remind those in the Natural, Organic and Biodynamic arena that successful minimalism in the winery is based on considered interventionism in the vineyard, rather than on intervention for interventionism’s sake.
I see a more permacultural approach, a ‘natural viticulture’ as being one way we can start repaying our environmental debt in terms of sequestering more carbon whilst putting less of it in the sky via intense re-biodiversifying.
Debates about sulfite levels and other additives in wine are important. But Covid-19 and climate change make me think where my next meal and carafe of wine are coming from and who is growing the food and the grapes, and how.
Natural wine made us question ‘what is in my wine?’
The next debate should be about what other edible diversity could our vineyards potentially provide local communities with whilst also sustaining and improving both the local terroir and Planet Wine as a whole.