Pure Juice: Our Favorite French Wines With No Added Sulfur!
Pierre Overnoy was asked what defines a "natural" wine: "For us, a natural wine, it's a wine that one wants to drink and drink again! For some, it's a wine with nothing added...but to work without sulfur it's not 'the little birds that sing, and then you go on vacation' (We think he means it's not so easy!). It takes experience and equipment, it's not an easy affair. Without sulfur or with a little sulfur, they're two different paths!" Overnoy continues (interviewed by Francois Morel in "Le Vin au Naturel") describing the essentials to make wine without sulfur, which begins with organic farming: "You must have this good 'triangle' : high acidity, a high population of yeasts in good health and a lot of malic acid, if possible. But the most important, for us, is the population of yeasts: with this, even if the other elements are not favorable, one can succeed."
But why do Overnoy and others like him seek to make wine without sulfur? SO2 has been used for hundreds of years as an anti-microbial to control undesirable yeasts and bacteria, and as an anti-oxidant as it bonds with acetaldehyde preventing browning and oxidative aromas. But it can have undesirable effects on the human body, especially to sulfite sensitive asthmatics, and both US and European laws regulate the allowable amounts in wine. (Current US regulations permit 350 milligrams per liter, and EU laws permit 160mg/L in red wines and 210 mg/L in whites.) For most people, the only effect of drinking a wine high in SO2 is probably a mild headache, but it's the effect on the flavor and purity of the wine, and the farming and winemaking involved, rather than health issues that draw most winelovers to "pure juice." Sulfur dioxide in wine, even at low levels, can be detected in the wine's aromas, and can block the natural expression of the flavor compounds present in wine.
As Overnoy points out, the most important aspect of no-sulfur wine production is organic farming. Estates that have been organic for many years have living soils, where the complex relationships between soil organisms naturally transform the raw material in the bedrock into nutrients and micro-nutrients usable and essential to the vine. The stars in this billion-character show may be the mycorrhizal fungi whose symbiosis with plant roots provides uptake of nutrients not normally available to the host, as well as helping with water supply and pathogen control in the soil. As Julien Guillot of the Clos des Vignes du Maynes points out, "Our 60 years of organic and biodynamic farming brings us juice that does not need the 'protection' of sulfur-dioxide, and we have three generations of experience in the vinification of natural wines." Organic farming, experience, equipment, cleanliness and careful bottling are some of the essentials in producing wines without added sulfur, and fortunately more estates in France (and elsewhere) are currently offering no-sulfur wines that are thankfully free of the excessive reduction, Brett and "mousy" finishes that unfortunately affected many natural wines in the past. The estates featured in today's email are all producing delicious, pure and profound natural wines - they may not be "typical," as chemical farming, inoculated yeasts, additives, corrections and large amounts of SO2 are unfortunately "typical" in most wines, but they will be complex, interesting and authentic products of healthy soils and we hope you will try them!
Please Note: Many other great no-sulfur wines are currently out-of-stock, but will be returning soon - please look out for: the 2015 reds from Frank Pascal at Le Jonc Blanc, the superb 2015 Chateau La Grolet Sans Soufre Ajoutés, 2014 Chateau Planquette, the return of Deboutbertin and many more...
-David Lillie
