The reason for this flavour carnival? Additives – or the lack of. Using added sulphur, lab techniques and about 70 legal additives, industrial wines are manufactured to be stable, consistent and, arguably, narrow in their flavours. In contrast, natural wine is additive-free, regularly unfiltered and utilises only a tiny amount – if any – of sulphur. These are sustainably produced, handmade, wild-fermented wines that wear their idiosyncrasies proudly and change subtly, bottle to bottle. It is high-wire winemaking and, as Nuttall concedes, some are “shit”. But, for many, that unpredictability is exciting. “Sulphur mutes everything; it makes wine orderly, neat, considered. With [natural], there are extreme highs and lows, but when you get one that really sings, it’s whoosh …” Nuttall trails off, making a soaring motion with his hand.

Natural wine has been fermenting in France since the 1970s, but recently such epiphanies have turned it into a phenomenon.

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