Natural Wine Producers: Working With Nature

José Carvalho, a Portuguese musician turned winemaker, built La Cave des Nomades on three hectares of schist-rooted old vines in Banyuls-sur-Mer, creating zero-sulfur wines of startling depth before relocating to Portugal.

Luc Devot spent years as a cook, fisherman, musician, and educator before finding his calling in a 4.5-hectare plot of schist-rooted vines in Estagel, where he crafts exuberant natural wines that taste unmistakably of the Roussillon.

A geology graduate who learned natural wine at a Rhone co-op, Jean-Francois Nicq now coaxes silk from Roussillon granite without additives.

Philippe and Céline Wies farm 14 biodynamic, Demeter-certified hectares of ancient schist terraces in Maury, Roussillon, coaxing saline, mineral wines from Lledoner Pelut, Grenache, and Carignan with no sulfur additions.

Vincent and Aurelie Garreta, a former environmental researcher and postal worker who traded careers for vines, farm 10 hectares of certified-organic old vines near Gordes in the Vaucluse, producing precise and fruit-driven natural wines from over a dozen traditional varieties.

Julien Trichard and Sara Hernandez make vibrant, zero-sulfite wines from 9 hectares of organic and biodynamic vines spread across Gignac and Plaissan in the Languedoc, working from a repurposed cooperative cellar in Vendémian since 2009.

Decorated sommelier turned natural-wine pioneer James Erskine makes additive-free Grenache and more from organic fruit in McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills.

A former Loire mushroom trader who settled in Banyuls in 2000, Bruno Duchêne works four hectares of schist terraces by hand and bottles without added sulfur.

Six generations of Bruniers have farmed the windswept La Crau plateau, where a deep mantle of rounded galets stones gives Vieux Télégraphe its benchmark Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Marie-Pierre and Eric Plumet farm 38 biodynamic hectares on the Massif d'Uchaux plateau in the southern Rhône, the first estate certified by Demeter in the region and still one of the few in the entire Vaucluse.

Guilhem Dardé and his family have farmed the volcanic and Permian red soils beside Lac du Salagou since 1993, making certified-organic Terrasses du Larzac wines of singular geological character from one of the Languedoc's most dramatic landscapes.

A Galician-Swiss DJ turned winemaker, Fredi Torres farms schist terraces across four corners of Catalonia, working organically and with biodynamic principles to make bright, low-alcohol expressions of Priorat and beyond.