Natural Wine vs Conventional Wine: What's Actually Different
Natural wine vs regular wine, step by step: farming, yeast, additives, sulfites, filtering, taste, consistency and price. What the law lets conventional wine use, what natural producers skip, and what that does and doesn't mean.
The shortest honest answer: natural wine is wine where the winemaker chose not to use most of the tools the law allows. Here's what those tools are, step by step, and what skipping them changes.
Side by side
Farming
- Conventional: synthetic herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers are permitted, within national rules. Machine harvesting is common.
- Natural: no synthetic chemicals. Usually farmed to certified organic or biodynamic standards, certified or not. Usually hand-picked.
Yeast
- Conventional: cultured yeast strains are widely used, chosen for reliable, clean fermentation and sometimes for particular aromas. Yeast nutrients help.
- Natural: only the native yeasts on the grapes and in the cellar. Fermentations are slower and less predictable.
Additions and adjustments
Wine law in the EU (Delegated Regulation 2019/934) and the US (27 CFR 24.246) permits, depending on region and wine:
- Acid added or removed.
- Sugar added before fermentation (chaptalisation) in some regions.
- Tannins, enzymes, oak alternatives such as chips or staves.
- Fining agents to clarify (some are animal-derived).
- Stabilisers and preservatives, including sulfur dioxide.
- Concentration and alcohol-adjustment techniques.
- Natural: none of these, or as close to none as the producer can manage.
Sulfites
- Conventional: sulfur dioxide is used through the process to protect against oxidation and microbes, within legal maximums that depend on the country and the wine.
- Natural: little or none. Fermentation makes a small amount anyway, so no wine is entirely sulfite-free. The truth about sulfites
Clarity
- Conventional: usually fined and filtered, often sterile-filtered, so the wine is bright and stable.
- Natural: often unfined and unfiltered, so some wines are hazy and throw sediment. Why natural wine is cloudy
Labelling
Most of the above doesn't need to be on a label. In the US, wines with 10 ppm or more of sulfites must say "contains sulfites" (TTB). EU rules require allergen declarations and, for wines produced since late 2023, ingredient and nutrition information, often provided through a QR code. Processing aids that don't remain in the wine generally don't need to be listed.
What changes in the glass
- Variation. Bottle to bottle, vintage to vintage. Some people love that; some don't.
- Texture and freshness. Many natural wines are lighter, lower in alcohol and meant to be drunk young and cool. Not all.
- Funk. Without sulfur and filtration, things like brett and volatile acidity have more room. Sometimes that's character, sometimes it's a fault. What is funky wine?
- Fragility. Low-sulfite wines can be less forgiving of heat in shipping and storage. How long natural wine lasts
What it doesn't mean
- Not healthier, as far as anyone has shown. Fewer additives is a real difference in what's in the bottle. It isn't a health claim, and alcohol is still alcohol. What the evidence says
- Not automatically better. A careful conventional wine can be more delicious than a faulty natural one.
- Not automatically vegan, though many natural wines are, because they skip fining. Ask.
- Not a guarantee from the word on the label. "Natural" isn't a protected term in most countries. France's Vin Méthode Nature label is the closest thing to a definition, and it's voluntary.
Why natural wine often costs more
Natural wine isn't always expensive, but it is rarely the cheapest bottle on the shelf. The common reasons:
- Small volumes. Most natural producers are small family domaines.
- Hand work. Hand-picking, sorting and lower-yield farming cost more per bottle.
- Risk. Without the conventional safety nets, a whole batch can be lost to faults, and that risk is priced in.
- Distribution. Small importers, cold-chain shipping for low-sulfite wine, and short runs all add cost.
Price isn't proof of anything, though. There is excellent natural wine at everyday prices, especially glou-glou reds and pét-nats.
How to choose
If you're curious, start with a bar that knows its list. Ask for something "natural but clean" first, then work outward toward wilder bottles. How to order natural wine · A beginner's case
isitfunky lists bars, restaurants and shops with proof they pour natural wine: their own site, their wine list, named press or natural-wine importers. Find a city · The map
Related reading
Quick answers
Natural wine: the full guide
What it is, how it's made, the labels, the faults, and where to drink it.
Mousy wine
Mousiness is the one natural-wine fault almost nobody defends. What it tastes like, why you can taste it but not smell it, what causes it, why it varies from person to person, and what to do with a mousy bottle.
Brett in wine
Brettanomyces, or brett, is the wild yeast behind barnyard, leather and smoked-meat notes in wine. What it is, the compounds behind it, why it shows up in natural wine, and how to tell a little character from a fault.
Volatile acidity
Volatile acidity is the tangy, kombucha-like edge in many natural wines. What VA is, the legal limits in the US and EU, how it tastes at different levels, why natural wine often has more, and when it becomes a fault.
Vin Méthode Nature
In 2020 France validated a voluntary label for natural wine, Vin Méthode Nature. What the charter requires, the two logos and their sulfite limits, who runs it, why most natural producers don't use it, and what it means when you see it.
Low intervention wine
"Low intervention" is on more and more wine lists. What the phrase usually means, how it differs from natural, organic and "clean" wine, why it has no legal definition, and the questions that tell you more than the label does.
Funky red & white wine
Funky wine tastes different in red, white, orange and sparkling. What "funky" usually means for each, where the funk comes from, which notes are style and which are faults, and how to ask for exactly the funk you want.