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.
Methode Sauvage
Chad Hinds launched Methode Sauvage in 2013 in Berkeley, then relocated to the alpine wilderness of Siskiyou County near Mount Shasta to grow alpine varieties by permaculture principles in one of California's most remote natural wine projects.
Press Gang Cellars
Kyle and Savanna Knapp craft tiny-production, low-intervention wines from Santa Barbara County's best sites, with many bottlings limited to under 100 cases.
Olivier Minot
Olivier and Corinne Minot farm fifth-generation organic Gamay vines at Domaine des Charbonnieres in southern Beaujolais, making crushable concrete-aged natural wines that bring deserved attention to Beaujolais Sud.
Domaine de l'Horizon
A biodynamic Roussillon estate founded by German winemaker Thomas Teibert at the foot of the Pyrenees, working old Carignan and Grenache around the village of Calce.
Rapatel (Gerard Eyraud)
Gerard Eyraud has farmed Domaine de Rapatel near Nimes since 1979, making zero-sulfur wines from vineyards his grandfather planted in 1905 on the edge of the Camargue -- aged in fiberglass tanks until they are ready, sometimes for a decade or more.
Kraemer
A Franconian family farm turning four hectares of organically grown vines into cloudy, low-sulfur, spontaneously fermented natural wines of bright, spicy purity.
Paul Clouet
Founded in 1907 in the Grand Cru village of Bouzy, Paul Clouet is a small family Champagne house known for powerful Blanc de Noirs built on six hectares of Pinot Noir and now run by the Bonnaire family.
Novaia
Fourth-generation Vaona family estate in Marano di Valpolicella, organically certified since 2014, making Corvina-based Valpolicella, Ripasso, and Amarone with native yeasts and minimal sulfur at 250-400m elevation.
Travis Tausend
Zero-zero winemaker in Hope Forest, Adelaide Hills, crafting handmade, purely spontaneous wines from organically farmed fruit with no additions whatsoever.
Le Debit d'Ivresse
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.
Les Foulards Rouges
A geology graduate who learned natural wine at a Rhone co-op, Jean-Francois Nicq now coaxes silk from Roussillon granite without additives.
Tenuta Cipressi
The Cipressi family has farmed organically in Abruzzo since 1990, producing BioVegan-certified wines from grapes grown on their estate in Scafa -- Montepulciano, Cerasuolo, and the rare skin-contact Moscato they call John Doe.
