Natural wine brands in the Philippines are few and far between, so make sure you take note of Bombvinos and Nectar
You might be thinking what wine is… not natural? Yes, wine is made from glorious natural grapes but there are certain steps in the production process that often require certain chemicals. In short, natural wine is made with the least human intervention possible so as to leave the product as organic as can be; no pesticides, synthetics and the like, simply an all-natural fermentation process.
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According to Wine Folly, “natural wine is the unfiltered, untamed, un-photoshopped version of what we know to be wine. In most cases, natural wine doesn’t look or taste like a typical wine. In fact, some natural wines taste more like a sour beer or kombucha”.
Natural winemakers are not held to the same standards as generations-old, traditional fine-wine houses. They have more leeway and freedom to be whimsical and out-of-the-box when it comes to flavour profiles, as per Bombvinos. This is why the varieties of fruit wines you may stumble upon are more often than not, sweeter and more layered with combinations of flavours.
"Now, natural wine has become a signifier of bourgeois taste in certain social circles and on certain menus… but while natural wine is recently trendy, it is not new. People have been making fermented grape juice without additives for thousands of years,” says Vox. What was once on the fringes—dubbed as hipster or indie niche—is tiptoeing and testing the mainstream waters. From orange wine to honey wine, will this trend catch on in the Philippines?
Here are two natural wine brands in the country you should know of: