Natural Wine and Beyond: What We Look For

If you’ve spent any time looking through our wine catalogue, you may have noticed that quite a few could be described as natural, organic, biodynamic or low intervention.

In fact, we’ve had more than one customer assume that the majority of our wines are “natural wines”.

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  A bottle of Cas Quitxero Grumer Brisat wine being held up against some foliage.

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  Various bottles of Adega Do Demo Bitoku white wine.

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  A bottle of Bodega Cerron Remordimiento lying on a napkin , on a table.

But that’s not quite how we see it.

We do stock natural wines, and many of the small wineries we work with farm organically or biodynamically and use minimal intervention in the cellar. These are all approaches we value, but they aren't the criteria we use to decide whether a wine belongs in our collection.

For us, it comes down to something much simpler:

Is it a really good wine?

And does it have something interesting to say?

What do we actually look for?

When we started Wine Industry Mallorca, one of the things we wanted to do was introduce people to wines they might not necessarily come across in the supermarket, traditional wine shops or on restaurant wine lists.

That doesn't mean looking for the strangest bottle we can find. It means looking for wines with a real sense of identity.

We're naturally drawn towards small, independent and boutique wineries where the people behind the wine are closely involved in every part of the process. We like producers who know their vineyards intimately, work with interesting grape varieties and care about where their grapes come from.

Sometimes the result is a natural wine. Sometimes it's organic or biodynamic. Sometimes it doesn't fit neatly into any of those categories.

That's perfectly fine with us.

Authenticity matters more than a label

The word “natural” has become increasingly familiar to wine drinkers, but it can mean different things depending on who you ask.

There is no single universally agreed definition of natural wine, and the term encompasses a wide range of winemaking practices. Some producers work organically or biodynamically, use native yeasts and very little added sulphur. Others take a different approach.

We don't think one method is automatically better than another.

What interests us is authenticity.

That might come from an indigenous grape variety you've never tasted before, an old vineyard planted on unusual soils, a traditional winemaking technique or simply a producer doing things their own way.

These are the details that give a wine personality and tell us something about where it comes from.

When does character become a fault?

This is where things can become a little more complicated.

Natural and low-intervention wines have sparked plenty of debate because some of the characteristics associated with them can be polarising.

A little reduction can add intrigue. A touch of volatile acidity can lift the aromas. Even subtle Brettanomyces - often simply called “Brett” - can contribute savoury, earthy or spicy notes that some wine lovers enjoy.

But there is a difference between character and fault.

If these characteristics complement the fruit and add another layer to the wine, they can be fascinating. If they dominate, mask the fruit or make the wine difficult to enjoy, that's another matter.

And this isn't unique to natural wines. Conventional wines can have faults too.

We explored some of these issues in our 2022 blog, What's That Funky Smell?, where we looked at cork taint, volatile acidity, oxidation, Brettanomyces and mousiness.

Ultimately, the question for us is simple:

Does this characteristic add something to the wine, or is it getting in the way?

Low intervention still needs good winemaking

We love wines made with minimal intervention. We enjoy native yeast fermentations and wines from vineyards farmed organically or biodynamically. But low intervention doesn't mean we lower our standards.

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  Two wine barrels with a red strip, and chalk writing at the end of the barrel

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  Martí Torrallardona Raventós, the winemaker at La Fita, testing wine from a glass demi-john.

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  Ceramic tanks at Bodegas Rossneu, in Mallorca

A wine should still be balanced, expressive and enjoyable. It should reflect the vineyard and vintage while allowing the winemaker's intentions to come through.

It should also be stable and consistent.

We don't expect every vintage to taste identical - wine is far too interesting for that - but if one bottle from a case is beautiful and the next is oxidised or overly volatile, that's not something we're comfortable offering our customers.

It's what's in the bottle that matters

Perhaps this is why we rarely promote a wine simply because it's “natural”.

If a wine is natural, organic or biodynamic, we'll happily tell you. But we'd rather talk about the grape variety, the vineyard, the winemaker or the technique that makes the wine distinctive.

Because a label can tell you how a wine was made. It doesn't necessarily tell you whether it's worth drinking.

For us, that's the exciting part of wine. There isn't one recipe for making a great bottle.

Some producers use spontaneous fermentation and native yeasts. Others use carefully selected yeasts. Some filter their wines; others don't. Some use very little sulphur, while others take a more conventional approach.

What matters is what those choices contribute to the finished wine.

Does it express the grape?

Does it tell us something about where it comes from?

Does it have balance and personality?

Most importantly, does it make us want to take another sip?

If the answer is yes, we're interested.

So, are our wines natural?

Some of them, yes.

Many are organic, biodynamic or made with minimal intervention, and some tick several of those boxes. Others don't.

But we don't choose our wines according to a checklist of production methods. We choose them because we like them - because they're well made, have personality and offer something we think is worth sharing.

For us, that's what Wine Industry Mallorca is about.

Not natural wine for the sake of being natural, but good, interesting and authentic wines made by people who care about what they put in the bottle.