Vin Méthode Nature: France's Natural Wine Label, Explained
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.
For most of its history, "natural wine" has had no legal meaning anywhere. Anyone could print it on a label. In 2020 France changed that, a little, with a voluntary label called Vin Méthode Nature. Here's what it is and what it isn't.
Where it came from
In 2019 a group of producers formed an association, the Syndicat de défense des vins nature'l, and drew up a charter defining natural wine. They submitted it to France's consumer-protection and fraud authority, the DGCCRF, which validated it in March 2020. Producers who follow the charter and sign up can use the label. Nobody is required to.
Sources: the label's own site, the charter (PDF), and a regulation summary from Anivin de France.
“The charter covers the vineyard, the cellar and the label.”
What the charter requires
The charter covers the vineyard, the cellar and the label. In summary:
- 100% of the grapes from certified organic farming (Nature & Progrès, AB, or at least the second year of conversion to AB).
- Hand harvesting.
- Native yeasts only. No added yeast.
- No added sulfites before or during fermentation.
- No inputs (nothing added), and no deliberate change to the grapes' composition.
- No "brutal" physical techniques: the charter names reverse osmosis, filtration (including tangential filtration), flash pasteurisation and thermovinification.
- Sulfites capped: if any are added at bottling, total sulfites must stay at or below 30 mg/L, whatever the colour or style.
- Per cuvée, every year: producers make a sworn declaration for each labelled cuvée, and any of their cuvées that aren't Vin Méthode Nature must be labelled so you can tell them apart.
Read the charter itself for exact wording; it's short.
The two logos
- Vin Méthode Nature: no added sulfites at all.
- Vin Méthode Nature <30 mg/L: a small sulfite addition, with the total in the finished wine capped at 30 mg/L.
That distinction is useful: it tells you on the label whether the wine is zero-zero on sulfur or not.
How it compares with other rules
- Certified organic wine in the EU (Regulation (EU) 2018/848) is mainly about farming, restricts some additives and sets lower sulfite limits than conventional wine, but allows cultured yeast, filtration and much more sulfur than 30 mg/L. Vin Méthode Nature requires organic certification and then adds cellar rules on top.
- Biodynamic certification (for example Demeter) is about farming practices; it doesn't require native yeasts or ban filtration.
- Fair charters, such as the quality charter RAW WINE publishes for its exhibitors, set conditions for taking part in a fair, not a legal label.
Why most natural producers don't use it
Adoption has been modest. Reasons producers give, and that wine writers have reported, include:
- They don't need it. Their buyers already know them, and natural wine has always run on trust between producers, importers, bars and shops.
- Paperwork and cost, especially for small domaines.
- Disagreement with the rules, for example on the organic-certification requirement or the sulfite threshold.
- Not wanting a label to define a movement built partly in opposition to rules.
So the label's absence tells you very little. Its presence tells you something specific and checkable.
Outside France
There is no equivalent legal label in the EU as a whole, the UK, the US or Canada. Some national producer associations publish their own charters. In those markets, "natural" on a label is a claim, not a certification.
Reading a French natural wine label
Even without the logo, a French label can tell you a few things:
- Vin de France. Many natural producers bottle some or all of their wines as Vin de France, the broadest category, rather than under a regional appellation. Sometimes that's because the wine didn't fit the appellation's rules or tasting panel; sometimes it's simply a choice. On a natural wine list it's common, and it says nothing bad about the wine.
- "Contient des sulfites". EU rules require a sulfite statement when a wine contains more than 10 mg/L. A wine without it is very low in sulfites; a wine with it may still have very little.
- Certification logos. The EU organic leaf, AB (Agriculture Biologique), Nature & Progrès or Demeter tell you about the farming, not the cellar.
- The producer's name. Still the most informative thing on the label.
How to use this when buying
- See the logo? You know the farming, yeast and sulfite rules it met.
- No logo? Look for the producer instead. Natural wine is a small world; importers, shops and bars that specialise in it know who works how.
- At a bar, the wine list is the evidence. That's also how we prove venues: a list naming natural producers we recognise counts as proof. How the Funk Score works
Related reading
- The natural wine guide: the full picture.
- Low intervention wine: the unregulated cousin.
- Natural vs conventional wine
- The truth about sulfites
Quick answers
Natural wine: the full guide
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