What is natural wine?

There is no shared legal definition of natural wine in Sweden or in the EU. Producers use the term for a way of working, not for a single rulebook.

France has had a label since 2020, Vin Méthode Nature, run by the Syndicat de défense des vins naturels. It requires certified organic grapes (Agriculture Biologique or Nature & Progrès), hand harvesting, yeast from the vineyard and no additives except a possible small sulphur adjustment in the finished wine. The label is voluntary. It does not cover everything that is called natural wine.

In practice, natural wine means few interventions from soil to bottle. The producer harvests and presses, then lets the grape and the place steer the fermentation. Clarity about farming and cellar work matters more than the word on the label, because anyone can use the word.

Sulphur dioxide is used in many wines as protection against oxidation and unwanted microbial activity. Natural wine often has little or no sulphur added, and when it is added that typically happens late, at bottling. There is no official typical dose for the term natural wine, and no shared ceiling.

What can be compared are legal ceilings, not an average addition. In the EU, total sulphur dioxide in wine other than sparkling wine and liqueur wine may not exceed 150 mg/l for red and 200 mg/l for white and rosé. When residual sugar is at least 5 g/l, those ceilings rise to 200 mg/l and 250 mg/l. Some styles have higher ceilings. Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/934, Annex I, Part B.

Organic wine has lower ceilings. For red wine with residual sugar below 2 g/l the ceiling is 100 mg/l. For white and rosé with residual sugar below 2 g/l the ceiling is 150 mg/l. For other organic wines the ceiling sits 30 mg/l below the ceiling in Regulation (EU) 2019/934. Source: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1165, Annex V, Part D.

Vin Méthode Nature allows no added sulphur before or during fermentation. In the finished wine an adjustment may be made up to 30 mg/l total, measured as H2SO4 by Frantz Paul analysis, whatever the colour. Any addition has to be shown with its own logo. With no added sulphur the other logo is used, and analyses up to 20 mg/l of sulfites formed during fermentation can be accepted. Source: the charter at vinmethodenature.org.

Fermentation often forms sulfites even when no sulphur is added. In the EU the words "contains sulfites" are required on the bottle when the level exceeds 10 mg/l, counted as total sulphur dioxide (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex II). The line does not say that sulphur was added.

Low intervention means the winemaker skips steps that steer flavour, colour or stability. Low intervention wine is the working method the term natural wine usually points to. In the vineyard the grapes are typically grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilisers, often organically or biodynamically, with or without a certificate. The harvest is often by hand.

In the cellar, fermentation is typically spontaneous: the grape's own yeast starts it, rather than inoculated fermentation with a cultured yeast. Cultured yeast makes fermentation more predictable. Spontaneous fermentation varies more from one vintage to the next.

Low intervention in the cellar also means that sugar, acid, enzymes and fining agents are usually left out, and that the wine is often not filtered. Conventional wine often uses several of those steps to keep flavour and appearance steady from year to year.

Organic, biodynamic and natural wine are three different things, even when they overlap.

Organic wine is a certification. Farming follows the EU rules for organic agriculture. In the cellar many additives are still allowed, including cultured yeast, and the sulphur ceiling is lower than for conventional wine but higher than what many natural-wine producers use.

Biodynamic wine builds on organic farming plus biodynamic methods, often certified by Demeter. It is first of all a way of farming, with preparations and the farm treated as a whole. A biodynamic bottle can be natural wine, but the certificate does not by itself require spontaneous fermentation or no added sulphur.

Natural wine sets expectations for the whole chain, but without a shared certificate. It typically includes organic or biodynamic farming and low intervention in the cellar. An organic bottle is therefore not automatically natural wine, and a natural wine is not always certified.

Yes. Systembolaget has a search filter for natural wine. The results are wines that the producer or the supplier itself describes that way, and the filter is not a certification.

An independent run-through of bottles in the assortment is in Natural wine at Systembolaget 2026. The list is updated on an ongoing basis. PACT does not sell at Systembolaget and earns nothing from which wines are on it.

Natural wine does not taste like one thing. The difference sits in the grape, the place and the vintage, not in a shared flavour profile.

Red natural wine is often lighter in colour and has softer tannins than many conventional red wines. White natural wine can have more texture, because spontaneous fermentation and little sulphur leave more of the grape in the wine. Orange wine is white wine fermented on the skins. The colour runs from gold to amber, and it is not the same thing as natural wine.

Sparkling natural wine is often made as pét-nat (pet nat), where fermentation finishes in the bottle. More on that style is in the guide to sparkling natural wine.

Unfiltered wine can look cloudy. The particles are leftover yeast. A light spritz in a still wine can come from fermentation continuing slowly in the bottle. Both are common, and neither means by itself that the wine is faulty.

Natural wine is made in many countries today. The movement grew up in France, above all in Beaujolais, the Jura and the Loire. In the 1980s, producers influenced by the chemist Jules Chauvet began farming organically and vinifying without additives.

Languedoc is one of the regions where the approach is common. Schist, limestone and old vines give character to Carignan, Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault. That is where PACT imports from. Read more in the guide to natural wine from Languedoc.