What is natural wine? The story of natural wine

The quick answer

In truth, Natural wine is just wine. Although, the way the world is built today has brought us to a place where casual wine drinkers mostly encounter heavily modified wines (industrial products made just like carbonated drinks by chemists in lab coats, with chemically induced tastes, full of preservatives and etc.).
So, now we have a new way of saying: this wine is made the original way, without all those chemicals and industrial processes, but just by fermenting grapes. And we call that natural wine.

👉 Fun fact: in Georgia, the birthplace of wine, there’s no need for this label. There, wine = natural wine. The rest have names like factory wine, modified wine, European method wine, etc.

A short history of (natural) wine

Some 8'000 years ago, on the south side of the caucasus mountains, right in between the Black and the Caspian sea's lived a people which called themselves the Kartveli (ქართველი) people. These people had a very harmonious relationship with wild vines and grapes that grew everywhere around. Grapes found the terroir extremely comfortable and thus kept mutating and mutating and diversifying their genetic pool.

Anyway, the Kartveli people somehow realised that if one builds a huge qvevri (a clay fermentation vessel) and buries it underground (so all year round the temperature doesn't vary too much, which is key for the fermentation process to occur spontaneously), one has just created the perfect vessel for making wine. Then these artisan people crushed lots of grapes into juice and poured it inside, with the skins and stems and everything that came with. They closed the qvevri for the winter season and fully buried it underground.

Once spring came around, they opened up these beautiful vessels and found that whatever was inside, was a potion full of wonders. Apart from the amazing natural taste that it must have had, this liquid gave drinkers an euphoria, a trip, a beautiful sensation of the mind; basically, the got drunk.

Thus was the invention of wine. This story has some amount of me filling in details, but what we actually know through archaeological and historical sources is the following: the Kartveli (Georgians) invented qvevri and made wine inside. Remains of these huge vessels were found with grape residue inside, and through carbon dating archeologists found that the clay was about 8000 years old. Amazing - I know. We also know that these Kartveli people taught the Greek their ancient art, and thus winemaking and whatever else comes with it spread through the European continent. Oh, and they also shared perhaps their god Dionisus, or Bacchus, most probably. There are many sources that suggest the latter was from "the east" (as in east of Greece), and it's origins were tied with the Colchis kingdom (one of Georgia's many names).

So, what is natural wine today?

Essentially, natural wine is an attempt to make wine the old way, with grapes, time, and fermentation. These days the vessels vary, some use qvevri, some use stainless steel, some barrels and some cement. Which one is tastiest is an adventure I recommend you take on yourself.

The natural wine movement is really a rediscovery. It means:
✅ Grapes grown organically or biodynamically;
✅ Fermentation with wild yeast;
✅ No additives, no heavy manipulation;
✅ Often unfiltered, unrefined.

Natural wine is the attempt to reclaim what wine was before industry reshaped it, and to reconnect with the spirit of Baccus once more.

Why It Matters Today

Because we are what we drink. Natural wine isn’t just about the taste, or the color, or the origin, or the story. It’s about authenticity and about treating the body well:

• A glass of nature’s raw product.

• A way of connecting with history.

• A chance to experience wine as it was always meant to be.

And yes, like kombucha or other ferments, natural wine even carries beneficial properties when enjoyed in moderation. 🍷

Taste the Real Thing

For us at Kinto Natural, natural wine isn’t a marketing buzzword — it’s the continuation of an ancient tradition, and it's rediscovery in today's world. We select wines that are made according to these tradition, and we invite you to have a taste.

👉 Explore our Georgian natural wines and taste the difference.