Natural selection E V E R Y O N E ’ S TA L K I N G A B O U T W I N E S T H AT “ S P E A K F O R T H E L A N D . ” B U T D O N AT U R A L W I N E S A C T U A L LY TA S T E G O O D ?
The Main Street restaurant Burdock & Co is a pioneer in the natural wine movement, and still one of the best places in Vancouver to enjoy a glass. Leila Kwok photo.
Charlene Rooke
“W
e don’t make natural wine. What we’re trying to do is make natural wine.” This paradox comes from Matt Sherlock, half of Lock & Worth winery (with Nichol Vineyard’s Ross Hackworth), founder of importer Sedimentary Wines and director of the award-winning wine list at Burdock & Co., three pillars of B.C.’s natural-wine scene. When a pioneer like Sherlock shies away from the term, you know it’s loaded, with no universal definition. “It’s controversial,” he admits. The natural movement was a reaction against post-Second World War industrialized agriculture, when it became common practice to use pesticides and irrigation in vineyards, commercial fermentation yeasts and flavour-extraction techniques to increase yield, and additives such as powdered tannins or red-wine colorant Mega Purple in winemaking.
In response, Sherlock says, some winemakers reverted to methods that “let the wine speak for the land,” believing that a gentle touch reveals terroir. “It’s drinking a grape that has been fermented. You’re tasting the land. You’re not tasting the hand of man, which is so boring,” he says. He compares highly manipulated wine to an e e cummings poem with its punctuation and capitalization “fixed” by an editor. Along with Sherlock and Hackworth, more than a dozen B.C. winemakers are exploring signature practices of the natural-wine movement, from using clay amphorae or concrete vessels for wild-yeast fermentation to forgoing filtration, adjusting acid or sugar levels and minimizing sulphites used for preservation. Often made in small quantities and subject to growing conditions, these wines can be challenging to find—and sometimes challenging to love.
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