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Wine agony aunt

Cathy Gowdie

'Natural' wine is fashionable in certain circles at the moment.
'Natural' wine is fashionable in certain circles at the moment.Quentin Jones

I've been asked to take a bottle of natural wine to a dinner party. What would you recommend?

A prior engagement that night would be good. Perhaps an urgent appointment with your tax return? Please sit down and pour yourself a glass of healthy scepticism because things are about to get complicated.

"Natural" wine is fashionable in certain circles at the moment. If you love peplum skirts or piercings in icky places just because they're so very now, you should most certainly get your mitts on some wine spruiked as "natural" today. No, really, go on - the wine ain't going to last, because chances are that in a few months, or maybe only a few weeks, it will have gone off. That's because it will likely have been made without any sulphur dioxide, which keeps most wines smelling and tasting good long after bottling.

Then again, it might have been bottled with sulphur but it's called "natural" anyway because the winemaker used only wild yeasts in fermentation. Or maybe the winemaker used commercial yeast but didn't use sprays in his vineyard. Or maybe he did use sprays but only "natural" ones. Do you see where I'm going with this?

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The term "natural", as applied to wine, is meaningless. It's not regulated or policed. At its best, it's about a winemaking philosophy of letting the grapes speak and minimal intervention, which I applaud. At its worst, it's about sloppy winemaking practices and marketing substandard wine, which I abhor. Some good winemakers are jumping on the "natural" bandwagon because it helps them move product. Some not-so-good winemakers are doing it too - it's an easy, profitable way to explain away wine faults. The better ''natural'' wines are selected by savvy sommeliers, turned over quickly and not necessarily representative of what you would find in a bottle a few months down the track.

See if you can locate a sympathetic bottle-shop owner to help out with something that comes under the "natural" umbrella but still tastes OK. And if you go to that dinner party, here's a question to kick off conversation over the quinoa: if this is natural wine, what's synthetic wine?

Are you struck with wine angst? Contact our Agony Aunt at epicure@theage.com.au.

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