John Barker is a New Zealand-based lawyer and consultant. He has a long involvement in international wine law and policy, including as the first candidate for the role of OIV Director General from outside Europe. Here he puts natural wine in historical context. See also Natural wine defined for consideration of a new, formal natural wine initiative.
What is wine? By and large, we take it for granted that wine is made from the fermentation of grapes. Yet throughout the history of wine there has been a tension between the paradigm of wine as a natural product of the vine...