Natural wine vs organic wine: what's actually the difference?

Natural wine vs organic wine: what's actually the difference?

They sound like the same thing. They are not.

Organic wine is a certification. Natural wine is a philosophy. Both start in the vineyard without synthetic chemicals — but what happens next is where they part ways entirely.

Here's the distinction most wine labels won't tell you.

Organic wine: better farming, same cellar

Organic certification covers what happens in the vineyard. No synthetic pesticides, no herbicides, no chemical fertilisers. The grapes are cleaner, the farming is more sustainable, and there's an official body verifying it — the EU organic leaf, USDA Organic, or equivalent.

So far, so good. 

What happens next though, is the key difference - inside the winery, organic winemakers can still use lab-cultured commercial yeasts to control fermentation, sulphites in significant quantities to preserve and stabilise, fining agents to clarify, and a range of processing aids that the organic framework permits. The result can be a clean, consistent, well-made wine — but it's still an engineered product, and it's still hard for the body to process. 

Organic wine is better than conventional. But, it's not the same as natural. And, it's an expensive certification for industrial products.

Natural wine: the original method

Natural wine predates certification entirely. It predates the concept of intervention. Wine, in its original form — the form invented in Georgia some 8,000 years ago — was simply fermented grape juice. Grapes, crushed, left to transform. Wild yeasts living on the grape skins would start fermentation spontaneously. The result was wine.

Find out more about the historic affair of wine and Georgia here.

So what would happen, do you think, if you just left grape juice alone in a sealed vessel for a winter?

That's not a rhetorical question. The Kartveli people of ancient Georgia answered it by burying clay vessels called qvevri underground, filling them with crushed grapes — skins, stems, seeds and all — sealing them before winter, and opening them in spring. What they found inside is wine. Complex, alive, full of character. No additions. No adjustments. Just alchemy, time and fermentation doing what they've always done.

Natural wine today is an attempt to work the same way. Organically or biodynamically farmed grapes. Wild yeast spontaneous fermentation only — no commercial yeasts to control the process. No fining, no filtration. And sulphites, if used at all, in tiny quantities, and only if the wine hasn't produced enough on its own, and is to be exported.

On sulphites — the detail that actually matters

Sulphites are the most practical point of difference between natural and organic wine, and worth understanding properly.

Conventional wines can legally contain up to 200 mg/L of sulphur dioxide. Organic wines typically sit between 100–150 mg/L. Natural wines, if sulphites are used at all, usually sit around 10–30 mg/L. Some use none.

Why do sulphites exist? They preserve and stabilise wine during transport and storage. Without them, a wine made in a small cellar in Kakheti might not survive a journey to Berlin in drinkable condition. So some natural winemakers use a very small amount — not because the wine needs it in any way, but because the world is large and wine needs to travel.

In our shop, you'll find both: wines with zero added sulphites, and wines with 10–15 mg/L — roughly fifty times less than a conventional bottle. The difference in how your body responds to those levels is real and measurable.

How to tell them apart in a shop

Organic wine is easy: look for the certification seal on the label. EU organic leaf, USDA Organic, or Demeter for biodynamic. If the seal is there, the farming is certified.

Natural wine has no equivalent global certification yet — which is either a problem or a feature depending on your perspective. Local organisations exist in most countries with slightly different standards, but there's no universal label to look for. Instead, look for language on the back label: 'unfiltered', 'spontaneous fermentation', 'wild wine', 'no added sulphites', 'hand-harvested'. These aren't guarantees, but they're meaningful signals.

The most reliable indicator is the merchant. A reputable natural wine shop knows its producers personally and vets the winemaking. In the absence of certification, the chain of trust replaces the label. That's why who you buy from matters as much as what you buy.

Which is also why we exist.

One word worth addressing: funky

You'll hear it constantly around natural wine. Funky has come to mean unconventional — yeasty, cidery, out-there. Some natural wines are exactly that. But it's worth knowing: no winemaker we've ever met is trying to make funky wine. Funk is usually either a stylistic byproduct of minimal intervention, or occasionally a sign that something went wrong. The two are not the same thing.

Many natural wines taste clean, precise, and immediately appealing. The goal of natural winemaking is to express the grape and the place — not to produce something challenging for its own sake.

If you want a reference point: our Orange Affair 2022 by Artizani is a modern classic, unfiltered orange wine — skin contact, bold, complex, a genuine adventure. Or, a special red dry wine, Norah's Tavkveri 2022 from Lomtadze's Marani, juicy, medium-bodied, immediately drinkable, the kind of wine you open without thinking about it. Both are natural, and carry marvellous tastes. Neither is funky. 

The short version

Organic wine: certified clean farming, conventional cellar. Better than industrial, not the same as natural.

Natural wine: clean farming plus minimal intervention from vine to bottle. Wild fermentation, no additions, honest expression of the grape.

The difference shows up in the glass, on the label, and — for most people — in how they feel the morning after.

FAQ

Can a wine be both organic and natural?

Yes. Many natural winemakers farm organically or biodynamically — it's the starting point, not the whole picture. The distinction is in what happens after harvest.

Is natural wine always better than organic?

Not automatically. Quality depends on the producer, the vintage, and the grape. A poorly made natural wine is still a poorly made wine. What natural wine offers is authenticity — what's in the glass is a direct expression of that year's grapes, not a modified version of them.

Why isn't there an official natural wine certification?

Because natural winemaking is a philosophy rather than a protocol, and the community has been reluctant to hand that definition to a bureaucratic body. Also, most natural winemakers are small producers, and adding the cost of certification makes little sense for most of them.

Local organisations do exist in France, Italy, Georgia, and elsewhere — but remember, each have their own standards. 

How do sulphite levels affect taste and health?

High sulphite levels can cause headaches and next-day effects in some people. They also suppress the complexity of wine over time — heavily sulphited wines are more consistent but less expressive. At the levels found in natural wine (10–30 mg/L), the effects are negligible for most people.