A chat with Jungsik Bar sommelier Shin Dong-hyuk and wine importers.
What exactly is natural wine?
Shin Dong-hyuk: To put it simply, it’s eco-friendly wine made through natural processes. It can be divided into three categories: organic, biodynamic, and natural. Organic wine is made from organic grapes grown without chemicals or pesticides. For instance, when the crop is infected with pests, instead of using chemicals to drive them out, farmers will use natural enemies. Biodynamic wine is made from grapes harvested using biodynamic methods, using natural fertilizers only at certain times of the month. Natural wine uses organic or biodynamic grapes and aims to exclude as much artificial processes during the winemaking as possible. In most wines, sulfite (SO2) is added to avoid oxidation but natural wines add no or minimal amounts of sulfite.
TO Seoul: Is there a distinct taste that only natural wines have?
Kwak Dong-young (sommelier at Wine N): There’s almost no difference in terms of taste. Except in some red wines, you may get a sniff of something like cow feces because natural wines aren’t filtered before being bottled. That also makes the color of the wine murkier. If you decant the wine, that smell will disappear completely, but some natural wine lovers drink it because of that savory smell.
