French Natural Wine

In Beaujolais. Inspired by the chemist Jules Chauvet, a group of growers known as the Gang of Four began making wine with native yeast and little added sulfur in the 1980s. Pioneers in the Loire and Burgundy soon followed, and the modern movement grew from there.

They are four Beaujolais winemakers, Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thevenet, named by the importer Kermit Lynch. Following Jules Chauvet's ideas, they made low-sulfur, native-yeast Gamay that became a template for natural wine.

Almost all of them. The strongholds are the Loire, Beaujolais, Burgundy, the northern Rhone, Alsace, the Jura, and the Languedoc-Roussillon, each contributing its own grapes and styles to the collection.

The Jura is a small region in eastern France known for the grapes Savagnin, Poulsard, and Trousseau alongside Chardonnay. It is famous for two styles: oxidative wines aged under a veil of yeast, and fresher, topped-up wines made in a more direct style.

Nearly always. French natural growers farm organically or biodynamically as a starting point, then work with minimal intervention in the cellar, adding little or no sulfur and relying on native yeast.

It depends on the style, and the range is wide. Crisp Loire whites suit seafood, carbonic Beaujolais loves charcuterie and roast chicken, and the fresher reds are happy with almost anything from the table. These are food wines by design.