3 HOW ARE NATURAL WINES SIMULTANEOUSLY AN OLD AND NEW CONCEPT?

Natural wines hark back to how wine would have been made centuries ago, when ripe grapes were allowed to ferment via wild yeast into an alcoholic juice. Modern advances followed by widespread industrialisation in the 1950s led to a style of wine today that’s more polished, controllable and largescale than ever. As Dellarosa puts it, “Our modern taste has been defined by a standardisation of taste and wine production, and maximisation of profits. What we drink most of the time today is a wine that has been produced for mass consumption.”

In the 1980s, French winemakers Marcel Lapierre and Jules Chavet found themselves at the forefront of a loose movement that rebelled against the industrialisation starting in the 1960s. They were deemed eccentric radicals, but the idea took hold as similar-minded farmers took up the task and started getting better at making wines without the conveniences of modern intervention. These fragile wines, whether in France, Australia or Italy, due to the lack of preservation methods would often be consumed locally and were embraced by a new, younger audience.

By the mid 2000s, restaurants and sommeliers were leading the charge, with Noma putting minimal intervention wines alongside their foraged, back to nature cuisine. The conversation since then has been firmly on the search for ‘authenticity’. Natural wine fairs and bars are now spreading across the world, though Chin notes it can go too far – “someone called me a natural wine sommelier the other day, and I have to say there’s no such thing! Any sommelier should know all wines, not just natural wines.” Having just joined Open Farm Community (openfarmcommunity.com) recently. he’s looking to revamp the wine list and to bring in more wines to Singapore, as founder Cynthia Chua is an enthusiast of the style.