Natural Wine Producers: Working With Nature
Portraits and interviews with the world's finest natural wine producers — farmers and winemakers who work in harmony with terroir, minimal intervention, and a deep respect for the land.
Cruse Wine Co.
A molecular biology graduate turned sparkling-wine cult figure, Michael Cruse founded Cruse Wine Co. in Petaluma to make fresh, serious, distinctly Californian wine, including old-vine Valdiguie.
Oro di Diamanti
Riccardo and Susanna Diamanti farm 3.5 organic hectares in Zola Predosa, crafting pet-nat and traditional-method sparklers from indigenous Pignoletto that are unfined, unfiltered, and sulfite-free.
Papras Bio Wines
The Papras family has farmed organically on the slopes of Mount Olympus in Tyrnavos since 1990, making minimal-intervention ancestral-method sparklers and orange wines from Black Muscat of Tyrnavos.
Paltrinieri
Four generations since 1926, Alberto and Barbara Paltrinieri farm 17 hectares of Lambrusco di Sorbara in the Cristo subzone near Modena, making bottle-fermented sparklers widely considered the variety's benchmark.
Agustí Torelló Roca
A third-generation Penedès vigneron who left the Cava DO behind to chase tension, place and zero-dosage purity from indigenous Catalan grapes.
Caves de Seyseel
An alpine sparkling-wine revival in Savoie, where two families bought back the historic Royal Seyssel label in 2007 to remake a wine once famous across Europe.
Clos Lentiscus
A tenth-generation Catalan family farm in the Garraf hills turning native Penedes grapes into some of Spain's most compelling sulfite-free sparkling wines.
Alessandra Divella
The first woman to lead a Franciacorta estate, Alessandra Divella farms two organic hectares and bottles zero-dosage sparklers that look more to grower Champagne than to the DOCG.
Maison Crochet
Wilfried Crochet makes small-production organic still and sparkling wines from 3.5 hectares in the village of Bulligny in Lorraine, a historic French wine region just southwest of Nancy.
Alta Alella
Inside a natural park barely a mile from the Mediterranean, this Pujol-Busquets family estate has farmed organically since 1991 on Alella's distinctive white granite sand.
Morandin
On a single hectare in Corbanese di Tarzo, three generations of the Giacometti family have made just one wine — Lèntico, a col fondo Prosecco refermented in bottle with native yeasts, bottled following the lunar cycle, and capped with sediment.
Col Tamarie
On the highest hill of Prosecco DOC, Alberto and Marta make a single biodynamic col fondo from a six-grape field blend, refermented in bottle with nothing added.