Exploring wine’s wilder side

Let’s talk about natural wine. The term ‘natural’ can be difficult to define and it’s an animated conversation to have, depending on who you talk to. Katie Spain chats to four ‘natty’ winemakers about why they make wine without additives

James Madden is a natural winemaker who makes his Scintilla wines in the Adelaide Hills. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

A DECADE ago, a motley crew of adventurous winemakers formed a group called Natural Selection Theory. Together, South Australia’s James Erskine (Jauma), Anton van Klopper (Lucy M Wines), Tom Shobbrook (Shobbrook) and the late Sam Hughes (Hunter Valley’s Dandy In The Clos) fermented their wine in ceramic eggs.

The fruit of their labour was poured from 23-litre demijohns which sat atop counters at the likes of Adelaide’s (now closed) natural wine bar, Cork Wine Cafe. Back then, the wine and natural winemaking approach caused patrons to scratch their heads in bemusement.

In the 10 years that have passed, natural wines have permeated the market, filling our minds, glasses and wine lists with curious flavours and imagination. The age-old art of non-intervention is here to stay.

But what is natural wine? The answer differs, depending on who you talk to. In a nutshell, natural wine is made using organic or biodynamic fruit with no additions – just grapes.

Drill down further and there’s a complex web of methods, motivation, integrity, and reasoning.

The winemakers’ motives may differ as much as their wines, but they’re all driven by a fervid respect for Mother Nature.

It’s no new concept. The French have been doing it for donkeys. It’s captured in Wine Calling (Le Vin se Lève), a documentary directed by Bruno Sauvard, who puts a spotlight on progressive biodynamic and organic French winemakers. At the heart of it all, the flow of nature and sustainability.

Locally, you can find natty wines at city bar La Buvette or The Summertown Aristologist. The Adelaide Hills restaurant is run by winemakers Anton van Klopper (Lucy M Wines) and Jasper Button (Commune of Buttons). The little Summertown haunt has a strict wine policy. Everything served is organic and has no sulphur added (with an exception of up to 20 parts).

A cellar door (adjacent to the restaurant) will open in November. On Saturdays and Sundays it will be a place where visitors can taste Anton and Jasper’s wines.

“On the fourth weekend of every month we’ll host another producer,” Anton says.

The Adelaide Hills is a hotspot for low-intervention winemakers, many of whom were inspired by natural wine champion James Erskine.

“I couldn’t be more thankful that people from all over the world want to come here,” Anton says. “We’re building a philosophy, a culture and helping people get started.”

Winemaker Travis Tausend. Photo: Ben MacMahon

TRAVIS TAUSEND

Travis Tausend Wines

There’s a thoughtfulness about Travis Tausend. It permeates his words and his winemaking. Travis grew up in Macedon, Victoria, and ended up in Adelaide, where he ran Cork Wine Cafe for seven years.

“We really pushed ‘natural’ wine (for lack of a better word),” he says. “Purely because of what we liked to drink.”

The shift to winemaking happened gradually. He dabbled with a grenache first, then a riesling. “The first one, I played around with sulphur and acid additions,” he says. “It didn’t feel right to me’.” Making wine with no additions felt better. “In my mind, what’s in the bottle needs to be nothing but grapes and the juice from those grapes – fermented under their own steam.”

Jauma winemaker James Erskine was a mentor and Travis worked out of Gareth Belton’s (Gentle Folk) Basket Range shed. When he made three barrels of semillon in 2015, former Sydney restaurant Noma snapped it up.

In 2017 he moved his winemaking to a shed in Hope Forest. He gets his organic fruit from nearby Magpie Springs. The 22-tonne range includes a pinot called Yumi (named after his niece) and another called Nana and Pa. His rieslings are called Joy and Opa, Watch Out! (named after an unfortunate childhood mishap) and his Sea Bass sauvignon blanc is inspired by French winemaker Sebastien Riffault. The names stay the same but the wine changes from year to year.

Travis works intuitively, gathering knowledge as he goes. It’s a hands-on, rhythmical process that requires constant attention to detail. The environment is always front of mind.

“I like to drink wines made from organic grapes,” he says. “I feel like that’s a non-negotiable. They need to be farmed in a way that leaves the earth in a better place than when we found it.” Travis pauses. “I prefer wines with absolutely no additions, fermented using ambient yeasts that come in off that vineyard. I feel like there’s more possibility for beauty in that space. There’s also way more possibility for mistakes but with risk comes the potential for reward.”

He believe there’s space for everybody. “People should be able to make wine, however, they want to make wine and drink whatever they want to drink. Some of the most amazing characters in the wine industry are old farmers that have been doing the same thing year in, year out on the same piece of land for 70 years.”

ANTON VAN KLOPPER

Lucy M Wines

Cape Town-born Anton studied and nailed the science behind winemaking but turned his back on the rule book when creating his own wine.

“I loved going to uni and I learnt so much – not that I apply that much of what I learnt now,” he says. “University degrees are not necessarily about broadening the mind anymore; they’re about focusing on one particular thing.”

Anton cut his teeth in hospitality before turning his focus to wine. He’s always had an insatiable thirst for understanding how things work. He turned his back on a dream job in Oregon to give organic farming a shot. “I’ve never used any chemicals on my farm – not even organic chemicals,” Anton says.

The reason for his natural wine quest was frustration. “And an intention to build beauty. If you’re going to be connected to this world you’ve really got to put in quite a lot of effort to change the norm.” His wines are made on his Lucy Margaux Farm in Basket Range. They change every year but one thing is constant: no additions. “For me personally, natural wine is just grapes,” Anton says. “You cannot filter, you cannot fine, you cannot add any sulphur – it’s just grapes.”

He owns a small plot of vines and buys the rest from growers (many of whom he had to convince to switch to organic or biodynamic ways). “We are intimately involved with how it’s grown,” Anton says. “An equally important part of natural winemaking is the way things are farmed and the connection that person has with the farm.”

His wines are as wild as his hair and can be challenging for more traditional palates, due to their cloudy appearance and natty characters.

“Imagine back in the ’80s when everyone ate cooked fish.” He smiles. “Now people love going out for sushi.

“Their grandparents would have been horrified by the idea of eating raw fish. It’s a palate spectrum change.”

James Madden in his production shed in Ashton. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

JAMES MADDEN

Scintilla Wines

SYDNEY-born James Madden has always been a bit of a nomad but the former sommelier finally settled in Adelaide’s Basket Range in 2016, after years of working harvest with the likes of natural winemaker James Erskine and Tom Shobbrook. He was impressed by their ethos.

“These guys blew me away because they had this unbridled passion and belief in what they were doing – that harmony with the environment,” James says.

He shares his new Hills lifestyle with wife Sam and toddler Flo (after whom he named his tasty pet nat Flo’s Fizz).

He runs his small but beautiful wine brand Scintilla out of winemaker Alex Schulkin’s Basket Range shed. “Not only do I get to use the equipment and make wine, but I also have a mentor right here and that’s important,” James says.

He uses organic and biodynamic grapes (some of which he grows on his own little plot) and doesn't add a thing. “I’m not against, like, people who add 20 parts or 10 parts (of sulphur). I still drink those wines but, then, they’re not my focus.”

The aim? “The same as any other winemaker,” James says. “It’s to produce delicious, clean, fault-free wine. Not to say I’ve been 100 per cent successful but that’s fine. That’s the quest.”

He enjoys the challenge of working without fining, filtration, cold stabilising, temperature control and additions. “Once you take away all those chemical adds, which can fix things instantly, you can go to bed and sleep at night. We don’t have that luxury. It takes more effort and more time and that’s why you can’t really produce this style in a large format. Like anything artisanal, it has been touched many more times by the producer.”

James loves to experiment, especially with field blends, picking varieties from his farm – his vineyard has 21 varieties – and putting them together in different ways. “My focus is on qualitative differences instead of quantitative,” he says. “We’re here for a lifestyle, not to make a million dollars.”

And the brand name? “After trawling through a thesaurus for a day I came across Scintilla,” James says. “It’s 17thcentury Latin and it mean ‘a little flash, bright spark or a glimmer’, and it seemed appropriate.”

The Other Right winemaker Alex Schulkin. Photo: Daniel Marks

ALEX SCHULKIN + GALIT SHACHAF

The Other Right

Alex Schulkin may well be the only wine scientist in the world who makes untamed wine. The wine researcher (originally from Israel) juggles Australian Wine Research Institute life with The Other Right, the fun little label he and wife Galit Shachaf kicked off in 2012.

Their fruit is sourced from vineyards across the Adelaide Hills (plus some wild-grown shiraz they fell in love with at Sellicks Hill). As of vintage 2016, all of their fruit came from vineyards managed by organic and sustainable farming practices.

“The heartbeat is growing the grapes,” Alex says. “The winemaking is easy.” He believes the growers are the unsung heroes of the wine industry. Like Sellicks Hill grower Ernst Sigel, a retired German baker-turned-grape grower who, on top of growing shiraz for them, once showed up at The Other Right’s shed with half-a-tonne of assorted grapes and asked if the pair could make a wine for him. They named their field blend after Ernst.

“You can see the personality of the grower in the vine (and in the wine),” Alex says.

The couple work out of their humble winery in the Adelaide Hills. Alex has a scientific brain, a creative spirit and a minimal approach. “We make untamed wines. The only ingredient is grapes – nothing else,” he says.

The couple gets a kick out of boundary pushing and problem solving. They do not use additives so the wines evolve slowly, according to their natural rhythm, and although Alex uses fewer tools in the winemaking process, attention to detail is paramount.

The results can be surprising. “We made the Moonshine (orange viognier) as a challenge,” Alex says. “To change the perception about the wine. Rules? The only thing I know is there are no rules.”

Their creations include White Young Thing (Magpie Springs chardonnay), All Fruits Ripe (pinot noir), Love Potion (a light, slightly carbonic shiraz), Away With The Pixies (a cheeky pinot noir), and Bright Young Pink (a fun petillant-naturel, aka natural sparkling). “There weren’t many around when I started making it in 2013,” Alex says.

“Now there are hundreds. That’s exciting. It shows us that the public are very much into it – the demand is really much higher than the supply.”

Keep your eyes on this daring duo as their drops sell out fast. They’re never too busy, however, to share knowledge and their ethos.

“We are great believers in evolution rather than revolution,” Alex says.

Also try

Jauma (jauma.com), Shobbrook Wines (shobbrookwines.com.au), Commune of Buttons (communeofbuttons.com.au), Manon Wine (manonwine.com), Borachio Wine (borachio.wine), Gentle Folk Wines (gentlefolk.com.au), Persephone Wines (rachelsigner.com), Château Comme Ci Comme Ça Wines, Limus, Broderick Wines (basketrangewine.com.au).