“Natural winemaking” is gradually spreading in Georgia. what this means what are the characteristics of this wine industry.
The fundamental principle of natural wine technology is that: nothing can be added or taken away during the production of wine.
To follow a seemingly simple principle, you need to have certain knowledge in geography, natural science, soil science, history, astronomy, enology (wine science)… only after Combining using all this knowledge, natural wine can be produced.
Ilya Chavchavadze, in his work “The Making of Georgian Wine” (1887), calls such wine “buneburi”, which means “natural”.
Natural wine is also beautifully described by Alice Fairing, (author of book – “Naked Wine”).
“Alice Fairing – Naked Wine”
“Naked wine is wine stripped down to its basics – wine as it was meant to be: wholesome, exciting, provocative, living, sensual, pure. Naked, or natural, wine is the opposite of most New World wines today; Alice Feiring calls them – overripe, over-manipulated, overblown – makes her case that good ( possibly great) wine can still be made, if only winemakers would listen more to nature less to marketers, stop using additives chemicals. But letting wine make itself is harder than it seems.”
In natural winemaking, great importance is attached to maintaining natural balance, therefore, only in case of emergency, non-natural fertilizers chemicals are used to treat the vineyard.
For the soil, you can use various composts, organic fertilizers, peat, biohumus, ash, crushed stone vegetable tinctures – this is also in certain quantities.
It should be noted that weeds have their place in natural winemaking the need for their existence is due to the fact that they are inhabited by beneficial insects that destroy grape pests thus achieve a natural balance, but at the same time, weeds should not be allowed to reach an obstructive height, their should be mowed, leaving the cut grass in the vineyard has no negative impact is important for the health of the vineyard soil.
Killing weeds with poison is tantamount to infecting poisoning the soil; after the destruction of weeds by this method, the soil is damaged, its yield decreases eventually “dies”. In natural winemaking, all this is unacceptable, it is necessary to prevent the disruption of the natural cycle by all means, to obtain a natural living product from the soil, not a “chemical fluid” instead of wine…
The production of natural wine can be carried out in many ways in all types of wine vessels, but preference should be given to the Georgian “qvevri” – (a clay vessel for making storing wine in the ground), which is truly outsting both in natural winemaking in general in terms of making wine in – Georgian.
The principle of making natural wine is the opposite of using artificial yeast, so only natural yeast is used.
As for the consumption of sulfur, everyone agrees to use the smallest doses, including in case of inevitable need.
It is also worth noting the fact that specialists in this field in Europe generally refuse sulfur , despite “sulfur-free winemaking”, they still make quality wine that is available to us if we follow the principles of Georgian winemaking.
Before bottling, wine bottles must be sterilized with sulfuric water. At the end of the sterilization process, the bottles should be rinsed with clean water to prevent the increase in sulfur content in bottled wine after these procedures.
Natural bottled wines are characterized by a small amount of precipitation the presence of crystals, which is not only considered negative, but also a completely natural normal phenomenon more evidence that we are dealing with natural live wines.
Giorgi Barisashvili