Articles
Experience and understanding of concepts surrounding natural wine in Vermont
Article number
1387_6
Pages
39 – 48
Language
English
Abstract
Natural wine has garnered extensive attention across large media outlets such as the New York Times (Asimov, 2015), Food and Wine, and vox news within the past 10 years.
This concept began in Europe, where growers and consumers searched for a wine product that met their standards of sustainability, quality, and representation of local terroir (Bouzdine-Chameeva and Krzywoszynska, 2011). While natural wine is generally associated with organic growing methods, native yeasts, and spontaneous fermentation (González et al., 2022), there are few to no regulations on this sector by the government.
To examine the current natural wine culture of New England, researchers released an online survey of several New England states through connected extension professionals.
The survey served to collect information on wine grower experience and familiarity with natural wine methods.
The resulting data largely showed that most respondents have done some of their own research in natural wine (71.42%) and perhaps have already tried many of its associated practices.
Respondents seem willing and interested in trying many of the low impact pesticide methods, and generally have a low use rate of conventional synthetic pesticides (38.5%). However, many of their written responses mentioned a lack of clarity surrounding the term.
The results of this survey may suggest that growers have an interest in low impact production methods, but more clarity surrounding natural wine production is needed for them to officially enter the market.
This concept began in Europe, where growers and consumers searched for a wine product that met their standards of sustainability, quality, and representation of local terroir (Bouzdine-Chameeva and Krzywoszynska, 2011). While natural wine is generally associated with organic growing methods, native yeasts, and spontaneous fermentation (González et al., 2022), there are few to no regulations on this sector by the government.
To examine the current natural wine culture of New England, researchers released an online survey of several New England states through connected extension professionals.
The survey served to collect information on wine grower experience and familiarity with natural wine methods.
The resulting data largely showed that most respondents have done some of their own research in natural wine (71.42%) and perhaps have already tried many of its associated practices.
Respondents seem willing and interested in trying many of the low impact pesticide methods, and generally have a low use rate of conventional synthetic pesticides (38.5%). However, many of their written responses mentioned a lack of clarity surrounding the term.
The results of this survey may suggest that growers have an interest in low impact production methods, but more clarity surrounding natural wine production is needed for them to officially enter the market.
Publication
Authors
B. Pelletier, T.L. Bradshaw
Keywords
organic, biodynamic, hybrid grape, Vitis, disease management
Online Articles (46)