Natural Wine Producers: Working With Nature

From a multi-generational farming family in Jois, Markus Altenburger farms 17 hectares of certified organic Leithaberg vines biodynamically, coaxing site-specific Blaufränkisch and skin-contact whites from ancient limestone and slate soils above Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland.

Heinrich and Gloria Mayr farm 2.4 hectares of organic vines within the city of Bolzano, Alto Adige, cultivating indigenous Lagrein, Blatterle, Schiava, and Teroldego since at least 1788.

Tahnee Shields makes alive, terroir-driven natural wines in Richmond, California, sourcing Gamay, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and other varieties from Sierra Foothills growers she trusts to farm with integrity.

Matija Žerjav, known simply as Matic, farms 9 organic hectares in the village of Malečnik in Slovenia's Štajerska wine region, championing the native Šipon grape and low-intervention winemaking in amphora and stainless steel with the energy of a third-generation natural winemaker.

Rooted in family winegrowing tradition but only newly bottling under its own name, this Terra Alta cellar works native yeast, zero sulfites and barely any machinery.

On a farm dating to 1750 above Villena, Andres Carull took the reins from Valencia natural-wine pioneer Rafa Bernabe in 2013, working only local grapes and nothing but fermented juice.

An Abruzzo-born agronomist, Giovanni Benvenuto returned to his grandfather's Calabrian land to rescue the near-extinct Zibibbo di Pizzo and champion native varieties.

A young couple coaxing expressive, hands-off natural wines from three hectares in a steep Stuttgart side valley, working out of a cellar that dates to 1546.

Marco Pecorari revived his family's 1874 estate in San Lorenzo Isontino, Friuli, producing only ancestral-method sparkling wines from 50-year-old Malvasia Istriana vines on the alluvial plains between Collio and the Isonzo river.

Discovino is the disco-born rose label of Wonderwerk, the low-intervention California project of childhood friends Issamu Kamide and Andrew Lardy.

On the Murge plateau above Gioia del Colle, Cristiano Guttarolo coaxes a rare lightness and minerality from Primitivo, fermenting some of it in beeswax-sealed Umbrian amphorae.

Barbara and Giuseppe Pusceddu make searingly pure Sardinian wine from 1.1 hectares of coastal vines near Cagliari, guided by a philosophy whose name translates simply as 'afternoon nap.'