Spend enough time in the company of wine enthusiasts and you’ll likely hear talk of the recent trend of “low-intervention” winemaking. You’ll probably hear about how it's better for the environment, how it results in wines with fewer chemicals and more expression of terroir, and more than a bit about how it makes vineyards more resilient to climate change.
But when everything a vigneron does, from pruning vines to pressing grapes, is an intervention in the natural world, you could also be forgiven for asking yourself what exactly “low intervention winemaking” is supposed to mean. So let’s get into it.
The Characteristics of Low-intervention Winemaking
Winemaking, almost by definition, is the art of intervention. To make wine, a vigneron must plant and tend the vines, harvest and press the grapes, then ferment and vinify the grape juice before aging and bottling the wine. It’s not exactly a process that can take place without some level of manipulation.
But within the context of winemaking, “low intervention” is simply a philosophy of a light touch, and abstaining from introducing artificial, “non-grape” flavors throughout the winemaking process.
Unlike “natural” or “organic” wine, low intervention is not a strictly defined or regulated term, which leaves some flexibility about how it’s applied by different winemakers. For all that, consensus has settled on a few common attributes:
Organic farming: Which means no artificial chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. Not only do these chemicals kill off soil microbes that keep the vineyards healthy and resilient, they also tend to erase any traces of terroir by killing of indigenous yeasts, inhibiting the uptake of local minerals, and juicing the grapes with an overabundance of artificial nutrients.
Handpicked grapes: Grapes for low-intervention wine are typically harvested and sorted by hand in order to ensure careful selection of and minimal damage to the fruit.
Whole cluster fermentation: Rather than destemming the grapes in their entirety, some grapes are put into the fermentation vats in whole clusters - stems and all. This generally results in more robust tannins (quite beneficial to thin-skinned Pinot Noir) and enhances the savory herbal and spice-driven aromatics in the wine.
Indigenous yeasts: Transforming grape sugars into alcohol requires the presence of yeast. These yeasts can come from two places: those naturally present on the grapes and in the vineyards, or by inoculation with commercial strains. Low-intervention winemaking opts for the former, fermenting crushed grapes with indigenous yeasts that contribute to the complexity and authenticity of the wine.
Reduced sulfites: When added during fermentation, sulfites can promote the presence of certain flavor compounds over others, changing the profile of the finished wine. When added after fermentation, they help to preserve the finished wine by preventing oxidation and inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria. Low-intervention winemaking only ever does the latter, and even then introduces only the bare minimum required to keep the wine stable - or even none at all.
Draft Horse Tilling: Though it’s not a strict requirement of low-intervention winemaking, tilling the soil with draft horses rather than heavy machinery is becoming a popular approach, as horses cause less root damage and provide more natural aeration of the soil.
Winemaking Comes Full Circle
There are two different ways of thinking about low intervention wine. On the one hand, it’s a recent trend gaining steam with a new generation of Burgundy winemakers. Under this view, it’s a response to the over-industrialization of wine, a reflection of changing attitudes about nature and climate, and a fatigue with the overly contrived and tailored wines of years past - something of a departure from tradition.
But if one takes the long view, low intervention winemaking can be seen as simply a return to the roots of what existed for millennia, before the advent of industrial agriculture. So returning to more ancient methods has been found to help with modern issues like resilience to a changing climate.
Burgundian wines are inherently terroir-driven, which gets to the very heart of what this approach is all about. The idea is not to take a totally hands-off approach, but just to use a lighter touch, and to let grapes and terroir speak for themselves.
Ironically, an intuition for when not to intervene often requires the most expertise of all. In a pure and simple melody, a false note will ring out all the louder. A new generation of Burgundy winemakers is facing this challenge head-on, and making it their mission to return to an older conception of what winemaking should be.
Low-intervention vs. Organic vs. Natural Wines
It’s easy to get mixed up with terminology, so let’s go through them to clear things up.
Organic wine describes wines made from grapes grown in accordance with organic farming principles - no artificial chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. That’s about it. Organic wine can still have additives like sugar, sulfites, and acidifiers, as long as these too are organic.
Natural wine is the most strictly defined of the three, and in France is a term regulated by the INAO, the organization in charge of French agricultural designations of origin. Natural wines (or vins méthode nature) are those that follow the charter of commitment, among which includes a requirement to grow organic, harvest by hand, make use of indigenous yeasts, and avoid the use of “brutal” or “traumatic” physical techniques on the wine, among others.
Observant readers will notice that natural wine follows many of the same principles as low intervention wine. This is true, and the terms are often used interchangeably. The main difference is that while natural wines must adhere to a strict criteria, low intervention is a more of a winemaking philosophy, allowing a bit of leeway if interventions must be made to rescue a certain vintage.