Natural Wine - what is it?
Vin naturel, natural wine! What is it? That's easy!
FERMENTED GRAPE JUICE - NOTHING IN - NOTHING OUT
Since there is no label or official guideline* for this design yet:
Vin naturel in the sense of vincaillerie:
without synthetic agents in the vineyard,
hand-read,
spontaneously fermented,
unfiltered,
unsettled,
unembellished,
and if at all sulphurized then with max. 20mg/l for red wine and max. 30mg/l for white wine.
Preferably without sulphurization! Every wine has a natural sulphur content - above 10mg/L it must say "contains sulphites", whether added or natural - most are around 10mg/L
Vin Naturel can be cloudy, can smell and taste unfamiliar, but doesn't have to - depending on the type!
If these wines are on open shelves in a shop with light and heating, please ask how long they have been there! Vin naturel should be stored at 10-14°C.
Following the link to the EU directives.
Wine is not a food, but a luxury food and does not have to have a list of ingredients!
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:193:0001:0059:DE:PDF
And a worth reading article summarizing the topic can be found here:
https://www.effilee.de/reiner-wein-was-drin-ist-und-nicht-draufsteht/
*AVN is working on this in France right now - with INAO !