(WineonSix) - Recently, Suzanne Mustacich, contributing editor to Wine Spectator and author of “Thirsty Dragon” wrote a lengthy article that discusses how the French are working to define what “natural wine” is. It’s a noble pursuit which I’m 100% behind for any one of a number of reasons but primarily for the fact that while I usually drink wines that could be considered “natural”, the entire “natural wine” movement is something I can’t stomach as it’s a dogmatic religion more than anything grounded in common sense.

To actually codify what is “natural wine”, is something needed for the general consumer as most people (rightly) don’t really understand it. After all, wine is not something created in a lab, no? All wines are made from grapes and grapes are a naturally occurring food item, right? The “natural” winemakers all preach a core tenet of zero intervention and manipulation but the last I checked, you need to prune grape vines for them to produce wine grapes and you need to pick the grapes at a specific time as they don’t just wander into your cellar on their own. Suffice to say, you don’t go and pluck finished bottles of wine from the vines and there is always, always some degree of intervention and manipulation. This idea of “zero” is an impossibility.