Sulphite is the oldest known wine additive. In almost every bottle you can have in Europe, you will notice the “contains sulphite” or equivalent sentence on the label. But what is sulphite, why is added during winemaking? And what about Natural wines? You may think that sulphite is a product of the industrial revolution, like artificial fertilizer and other chemicals. Wrong! sulphite is added to wine since the Roman Empire. It was one of the oldest additives in winemaking with water, honey, resin, and lead (fortunately the last one is not used anymore).

15 km away from the city of Lyons, between the Beaujolais and Côtes du Rhone appellations, you can find a small appellation called Coteaux du Lyonnais. With only 207 hectares, this AOC produces red wine and a few white and rosé and it is divided into a north part and a south part. Red wine is produced only with Gamay, white wines use Chardonnay, Aligoté, and rarely Pinot Blanc. The region is known for its wine production since the Gallo-Roman age.

When talking about the French vineyard, most people can talk about five to six wine regions: Bordeaux, Bourgogne, Loire, Alsace, and Rhône. Some may include other vineyards like Jura, Provence, or even Savoy. But rarely the Sud Ouest Region is mentioned, some may have heard about Cahors, Gaillac, or Monbazillac, but the region is mainly unknown. Here in Amsterdam, finding any bottle from there is difficult. But this area has a very rich historical wine tradition and a rich terroir.

Not so long ago, natural wines from Jura were easy to find and most often affordable. You could effortlessly locate a bottle of your favorite winegrower in a cave and enjoy it with friends like any other wine. Today, it has become a luxury if only you can find one. Today, however, it has become a luxury to find such wines, primarily due to Jura’s growing popularity among wine enthusiasts. You can find videos on YouTube featuring wine experts and sommeliers praising the quality of these wines.

Since 2011, on the 17th of April of each year, people celebrate the Malbec grape variety around the world. The “Vino Argentino Bebida Naciona” (Argentina Wine) organization makes April 17 the Malbec World Day. So let’s take a few minutes to explore Malbec, which almost disappeared and was renewed and its history in the world. Malbec grapes produce medium-sized with dark blue-black color berries. The grape clusters are relatively loose. It is part of the “cotoide” grape family.

The phylloxera appears in Europe during the second part of the 19th century and destroy a major part of the European vineyard. The first apparition of what we call natural wine dates back to the sixties. At first, these two elements seem unrelated, but they are more related than you can think. Let’s talk about vine anatomy to start, a vine plant is composed of a wooden part, the stump, the roots, and an aerial vegetal part.

Let’s face it, wine isn’t exactly natural. Human intervention occurs, from the vineyards to the bottle. But here’s the real question: can we replicate wine artificially and still enjoy it just as much? Probably not. It’s like trying to make a replica of the Mona Lisa with crayons - sure, you might get the basic outline right, but you will miss the essentials. When it comes to wine, we tend to focus on aromas, tastes, and colors.

Over the last few days, I have been seeking a clear definition of minerality in wine. Minerality can be describe as a peculiar sensation that one can experience when drinking certain wines, such as Pouilly Fumé or Irouléguy Blanc, but also this strange flinty smell or “Pierre à Fusil” that may occur with other wines. I initially searched for a definition in a French dictionary using the French translation of minerality (“Minéralité”), but to my surprise, the word was not found.

A glass of wine can offer an immense olfactory landscape that our brain interprets using our emotions and memories. If you’ve ever tasted a berry from a wine grape variety like Chardonnay or Gamay, you’ll find that the flavor is vastly different from what you taste in a glass of wine (except for Muscat and unripe Cabernet Franc berries). For example, wine made from Gamay can have a range of aromas, such as gooseberry, banana, strawberry, and others, depending on the wine, the region, and the winemaker.

If you don’t work in an IT company or have some interest in artificial intelligence, there are chance that you didn’t hear about ChatGpt, and you may ask, what is the link with wine? ChatGpt is a Generative Pre-trained Transformer. In short, it is a computer model that can do language-based tasks such as text completion, answering a question, and creating text. It can generate text content based on a query, in a style you want.