The Best Natural Wines I Have Tasted

I have two problems with natural wines, and neither of them directly concerns the wines themselves.

The first is the posturing of those who produce them, often haughty toward those who don’t follow their method. Do you use selected yeasts? Your wine is dead. Are you not one hundred percent organic? You hate nature. Sulfur dioxide? You’re deceiving consumers. We’re at cult levels, and generalized falsehoods: because while it’s true that some practices made dogma by natural producers are those that most respect the earth and allow wines linked to terroir rather than oenological technique, it’s also true that the economic and geographical reality of many producers doesn’t allow completely natural wines. This doesn’t make their bottles dishonest – on the contrary: often the intelligence of technique allows products of great value, using oenology as a catalyst, not as steroids.

I’m also struck by their appropriation of the adjective “natural.” As if wine that doesn’t respect a certain canon were artificial. No, it’s still wine, not polystyrene. Sure, there are large producers who churn out copy-paste bottles like snack cakes. But there are also many others of small-medium size who find the right balance between vineyard expression, good cellar practices, and economic sustainability.

The second problem concerns those medium-large producers who open an organic, orange, natural line, and so on. These companies have seen potential in the niche and want to exploit it, which is legitimate. But the beauty of the natural approach lies in its fundamentalism, in not conceding anything to traditional technique. Wines are either natural or they’re not, and the same goes for winemakers. Opening a line that fishes in that sector is a commercial tactic, and its partiality betrays the very sense of the product one wants to create.

These two points don’t contradict each other. I appreciate the ferocity of those who make natural wines, I love their ideological closure, the certainty that theirs is the only right path. Long live the fanatics! But I can’t stand the finger pointed at those who do differently, and often that finger belongs to retailers and owners of indie wine bars who speak from partisan bias, not from direct experience of the vineyards.

My problems with natural wines, in fact, are not with the wines: I often like those. Sure, there are undrinkable acidic little juices, and there are quite a few. There are wines defective by choice, or so they say when the bottle is closed. There are glasses of vinegar passed off as delights. But there are also glorious wines, fascinating expressions of terroir, bottles I don’t forget. Here I list the latter, the positive cases. A list I keep updated and sometimes reread to remind myself of the beautiful and very beautiful in this category, maybe when someone tries to palm off a Riesling oxidized to death on me.

In this article

Friuli and Brda: Where It All Began

If there’s a place that decided the fate of modern orange wine, it’s that splendid group of hills on the border between Italy and Slovenia that changes name depending on which side of the border you’re on: Collio in Italian, Brda in Slovenian. Ribolla Gialla, an indigenous grape variety with thick skin and high acidity, was already macerated out of necessity before it became a manifesto. Joško Gravner and Stanko Radikon, in Oslavia, in the 1990s took up that tradition not as nostalgia but as an answer to a technical question: why don’t the wines we make resemble the grapes we have? Gravner arrived at buried Georgian amphorae, months of maceration, six years in large wooden barrels and then in bottle before release. In 1995, Radikon made the first trials with prolonged maceration, without sulfites from 2002. They became reference producers not because they did marketing, but because the wines stood the test of time.

It should be said that this works with a grape like Ribolla Gialla. Other varieties come out diminished by maceration, because what they are worth sits in a linearity that contact with the skins breaks: I wrote about it in relation to Chardonnay set against Chablis.

What I find interesting about this area is that the natural approach didn’t arrive as external ideology: it returned as memory. Brda families made wine this way also because they had no alternative. Gravner and Radikon gave technical form to something that was already there, buried like a Georgian amphora. Other producers rooted in this same Brda tradition continue to explore the expressive potential of these hillside vineyards with a similarly thoughtful approach.

I Clivi is perhaps the producer that best tells the story of non-interventionist Collio right now. Mario Zanusso works with indigenous varieties, Friulano and Ribolla in the lead, with little sulfur and no new wood. The result is vertical wines, sometimes sharp, that require attention but return complexity.

I Clivi – Clivi Brazan Bianco 2021 [excellent] The Clivi Brazan lives on acidity: it’s the pivot around which everything else revolves. On the nose there’s anise and a hint of petrol that recalls certain Rieslings. In the mouth the body is oily, full, with a final salinity that calls for the next sip. The wood is present but integrated, and with a couple of years in the cellar it’s almost completely gone. Long, bitter, satisfying. With paella it gave body without overwhelming it, with a balance I hadn’t foreseen.

Styria and Burgenland: The Eccentric Isolationism of the Austrians

There’s something consistent in the fact that Austrian natural wines have never tried to be glamorous. Styria, which locals call Steiermark and which some call the green heart of Austria, has producers like Sepp Muster, Franz Strohmeier, Ewald Tscheppe of Werlitsch and Andreas Tscheppe who form an informal collective, Schmecke das Leben, built around the idea that first comes the earth and then the winemaker. Muster took over the family winery in 2000 and changed everything: biodynamic viticulture from 2003, indigenous yeasts, no filtration, minimal sulfites. His Erde, a twelve-month maceration on Sauvignon with a little Chardonnay, ages in Pauscha wooden barrels alternating reductive and oxidative phases and is a changeable and dynamic product.

Strohmeier, in western Styria, does the same thing on gneiss, quartz and marl soil, with Blauer Wildbacher as the main grape. The TLZ line, Trauben Liebe und Zeit (Grapes, Love and Time) is without added sulfites. The name is literal: these bottles require patience to open, but they pay back.

In Burgenland, Gernot Heinrich is a different case: the transition to natural wines wasn’t ideological but gradual, driven by curiosity about what happens when you let the wine do its thing. His Traminer Roter Freyheit is one of the most surprising bottles I’ve found in this category.

Muster-Gamlitz – Grubthal Sauvignon Blanc 2022 [very good] Matches, excellent lively acidity, tense. It doesn’t need anything else to present itself.

Heinrich – Salzberg 2019 [excellent] Round but with continuous depth: red pepper, tomato leaf, dark berries. A complete and long wine that doesn’t exhaust itself at the first sip.

Heinrich – Gabarinza 2019 [excellent] More closed than Salzberg, with cassis, bitter cocoa powder, tobacco and an herbal sapidity. A large and juicy body that invites.

Heinrich – Traminer Roter Freyheit 2022 [very good] Saffron, ginger, candied mango, rose petals, bitter orange. An acidity that guides the sip in a dry and almost paradoxical way compared to the nose. Remarkable for the category.

Heinrich – Out Of The Dark Blaufränkisch 2023 [very good] Fresh, lively, contemporary, even in its pale color. Strawberries, raspberries, orange peel in the finish. Light tannin, dynamic drinking and sapidity that closes the sip well. Fun and sincere.

France: Iconoclasts Who Know What They’re Doing

France has a tradition in natural wine that starts from different premises compared to Italy or Austria. Nicolas Joly and Coulée de Serrant made biodynamics a serious technical topic starting from the 1980s, before it became fashionable. Beaujolais with Lapierre, Foillard and Guy Breton demonstrated that Gamay, a grape often relegated to bistrot wine, could be something more if treated with carbonic maceration, whole cluster fermentation and no selected yeasts. Jura with Overnoy almost single-handedly invented oxidative wine without sulfur, demonstrating that stability doesn’t need chemistry if the vineyard is healthy.

What distinguishes the best French natural producers is their education: Joly studied, Overnoy studied, Dard & Ribot studied. It’s not self-taught provincialism. It’s conscious choice against a system they know from the inside.

Nicolas Joly – Clos de la Coulée de Serrant 2022 [exceptional] Maybe natural wines make sense especially when sweet. Alcoholic candy, saffron, honey, toffee. Good acidity. Rustic in the sense of rough and unrefined on the palate, with irregularities you feel as the producer’s presence in the bottle. Pure Chenin with that typical chalk, but with a sweetness you don’t expect. Unforgettable.

Dard & Ribot – Crozes-Hermitage Blanc 2022 [exceptional] A moment of vindication for natural wines. Rich nose of honey, ripe apple, something tropical. The body is soft and sensual, with a hint of sweetness never out of place despite the glycerin. Long, rich, dignified. A convincing example of what malolactic does in the right hands.

Mouthes le Bihan – La Pie Colette Rouge 2019 [very good] Cassis, wood, pepper. Very French: not immediate, but with a floral and herbal palate in perfect balance. The cassis finish closes with class.

Domaine de la Tournelle – Fleur de Savagnin [excellent] From Jura. Lots of vanilla but also grapefruit and flowers. Very juicy, with good sapidity and acidity. Leaves a bitter aftertaste. In the mouth the wood is integrated, retronasally the smoke. Tannic, a bit crazy, consistent with the wild soul of Savagnin without ouillage.

Claude Riffault – Les Boucauds Sancerre Blanc [very good] Chalk, mango, tomato leaf. A medium, constant acidity, spiny on the tongue, directed outward. The fruit emerges retronasally. Long, sapid finish, with a call to rock. Crackling in the mouth.

Le Roc des Anges – Llum 2022 [excellent] From Roussillon. A surprise and a discovery. Very reminiscent of a Riesling, especially on the nose with the petrol and dried but still juicy apricot. In the mouth an almost syrupy body that’s cut by good acidity. Old vines, you feel that calm depth. The finish has powerful sapidity and high spicing: white pepper and creamy vanilla due to passage in used barrels. A wine that has almost everything. The Languedoc region also hides other gems worth exploring, including the Terrasses du Larzac AOP, where producers like Domaine de l’Accent are doing remarkable work with minimal intervention.

Sicily and Etna: Volcanic Naturalism

Etna has become in the last ten years one of the most discussed terroirs in Europe, and part of that discussion concerns producers who work with minimal intervention on pre-phylloxera grapes, at altitudes between 600 and 1000 meters, on volcanic soils that don’t need to be corrected because they already give what’s needed. Frank Cornelissen is the most extreme case: a Fleming who moved to Etna in 2001, he built an approach that admits no corrections, not even those habitually accepted in the natural world.

Frank Cornelissen – Magma 2020 [very good] Blueberries, sea air, geranium and acetone. Very powerful tannin around the lips, without embarrassment. A product that doesn’t seek consensus. Blueberry in the mouth, body that’s also light. The finish suffocates a bit, the tannins are young and will probably last a long time. Timid acidity. A bottle that’s a manifesto.

Frank Cornelissen – MunJebel Rosso 2017 [very good] Crazy grip. Leather, wild, attic. In the mouth again the wild with coarse and powerful tannins. The finish evolves on notes of dates and sultanas, with lots of juice and remarkable length. Finishes on chili pepper. A wine to follow, not to judge quickly.

Palmento Costanzo – Mofete Etna Bianco [very good] Jasmine, bergamot, ash. Powerful nose far from fruity aromas: floral but anchored to something material. The body is splendidly dense. On the palate the citrus returns, powerful acidity throughout the mouth. Remarkable fruit concentration and an umami finish that persists.

Palmento Costanzo – Mofete Etna Rosso [very good] Proposed as an easy wine, but it’s almost ungenerous: excellent fruit intensity, plum and pulpy wild strawberry, joyful tannin. Clear, with peaks of flavor and structure. Good drinking, without complications.

Border Friuli: Lesser-Known Producers

Pinat – Ognicost 2018 [very good] Verduzzo vinified not sweet. Dried fruit, cinnamon, dried flowers. Acidity that emerges on length, titillating under the tongue. Austere and with a demanding nose. With a few more degrees of temperature it might have released more aromas. A wine that requires attention to be drunk at its best.

MarcoSara – Monte della Guardia Bianco [excellent] Lemon freshness on the nose, then in the mouth the malolactic and wood mix everything up: yellow peach, honey. Long finish, excellent acidity. One of those you can’t wait to try again.

Movia – Vigna Dol Malval [exceptional] An exceptional Malvasia because it has a round and full body, with a sharp and metallic acidity at the center that gives it tense coherence. On the nose yellow flowers, briny, a rock note typical of Collio/Brda. The flavors are those of orchard and flower. It’s not a revolutionary Malvasia in style, but the powerful and balanced structure gives it an advantage. The long finish, with bitter almond and citrus notes, recalls the best Friulano.

Some Notes for Orientation

Natural wines often cost more not because they’re better, but because they’re produced in small quantities by those who don’t scale the industrial process. A bottle of Muster or Gravner isn’t an impulse purchase: it’s a decision to make knowing what you’re looking for. Prices vary enormously: they range from fifteen euros for Palmento Costanzo Mofete to one hundred twenty for Gravner, with most of the producers cited here in a range between twenty and fifty euros in European markets. At that range, almost everything I’ve mentioned is worth the price, especially Heinrich and I Clivi, which remain among the most intelligent and undervalued proposals on this list.

This list is updated. If you’ve drunk something you think deserves to be here, write to me.