The Wachau valley is home to a few of the oldest natural white wine producers in the nation (Getty)
Are you a red wine lover in the making? Or just an oenophile-in-training? Either way, the Indy Red Wine Club is here to help.In our brand-new series Uncorked, we are taking your burning questions about wine straight to the experts at our partner Honest Grapes. No concern is too huge, or too little: exists ever a correct time to serve red chilled? What should you try to find when purchasing a Côtes du Rhône? And is cork always much better than a screwtop? These are just a few of the concerns we’ll be responding to in this column.Don’t get stuck in the grapevine. Send your concerns over to our food and drink editor Hannah Twiggs and we’ll pop the cork on your most significant grape gripes.That’s enough white wine puns(for now).
Let the education commence … I’ve heard about Austrian natural wines.
Where must I start?Where to begin! First things initially, the classification” natural wine”is rather nebulous, insofar as presently there’s no certification(unlike natural or biodynamic). It is usually agreed however that farming biodynamically, with natural products, with nothing included and nothing removed during the winemaking process, and no fining or purification, will lead to a”living” and”natural”wine.Austria has been at the heart of this motion for almost a century. In truth, the founding daddy of biodynamic farming was an Austrian– Dr Rudolph Steiner– an occultist and famous clairvoyant, who throughout a series of lectures in 1924 delineated a set of principles that the natural white wine world now follows. It’s a classification without a definition however grabbed the attention of everyone in the industry– either dismissed as a passing trend, or welcomed as a point of distinction or interest.It’s not regionally specific either. Weingut Nikolaihof, the nation’s oldest estate in Wachau, was one of the world’s first biodynamic wineries, and more contemporary wineries in Burgenland such as Claus Preisinger and the legendary Gerhard Pittnauer embrace the hands off, minimalist technique to winemaking with significant outcomes. Story continues As the natural red wine movement keeps growing here, you’ll discover more Animal Nat(an approach of champagne that pre-dates champagne), and more unfiltered(cloudy)wines, in addition to every other style possible. The beauty is that there are no difficult
and fast guidelines with natural wines, so for every one you do not like, you are almost guaranteed to find several more that concur with your palate. The other side of this is the absence of consistency, so if you do discover one you like, next time it may not taste rather the exact same … If you are completely brand-new to natural white wine, some of the more extreme examples may be too cool, cloudy, dirty, cider use and tacky to your taste buds … so constantly inquire about the wines you are purchasing. In any case, I advise you dive right in and begin exploring!To discover more about Independent Red wine Club and capture the first cases– the Italian Joyful Case and the Festive Heroes Case– before they sell out, register here.Got a question for the wine masters? Send it to [email protected] or tweet @hannah_twiggs.