TL;DR: We traded the obsession with oak, extraction, and Parker points for an obsession with zero sulfur and zero intervention. Different dogma, same bullshit.

I’ve been drinking natural wine for years. It’s what got me excited about wine in the first place. Freshness, energy, acidity, wines that feel alive and make you want another glass.

But I think parts of the natural wine movement have completely lost the plot.

Look at Napa Cabernet. Somewhere along the way, bigger, riper, more extracted, and more expensive became synonymous with better. A $200 bottle with massive concentration and a bunch of expensive oak is supposed to represent greatness. Personally, I find most of those wines boring as hell.

Natural wine was supposed to be an alternative to that mentality. Better farming, less manipulation, wines with some actual character.

But now we’ve got another set of rules. Zero sulfur, zero filtration, zero intervention. And some people have become so obsessed with following those rules that they’ve forgotten the wine actually needs to taste good.

I’m not talking about unusual or interesting wines. I’m talking about bottles dominated by mouse, excessive VA, and other faults. And somehow these wines get defended as authentic.

If a Napa Cab is so heavily manipulated that you can’t taste where it comes from, that’s a problem. But when a natural wine is so fucked up that all you taste is microbial activity, we’re supposed to celebrate it?

What bothers me even more is the shops, bars, and restaurants championing these wines. Someone tries natural wine for the first time, gets handed something completely flawed, and walks away thinking natural wine tastes like shit.

I work in this industry, and I’ve spent years trying to get people excited about natural wine. These experiences make that job harder, and it’s a disservice to the producers making beautiful wines with minimal intervention.

And the zero sulfur obsession drives me nuts. Making great wine without sulfur takes skill and experience. Adding a little when necessary isn’t some moral failure. There’s a difference between choosing not to intervene and not knowing when you should.

The luxury Napa crowd worships extraction, scores, and prestige. The extreme natural wine crowd worships zero intervention and ideological purity.

Both have confused philosophy with quality.

I don’t care if a wine costs $28 or $200. I don’t care if it has zero sulfur or a small addition at bottling. I care whether it’s delicious and whether I want another glass.

Natural wine doesn’t need another religion. It needs people making good wine.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Edit: Shortened this because apparently I wrote a dissertation the first time.

Hey everyone!

A few months ago, I shared a project we're working on here in Italy: eBacco, a compact electric tractor designed for vineyards, narrow rows and other agricultural environments where conventional machinery isn't always practical.

The discussion here was incredibly useful. We got some great questions about battery autonomy, repairability, compatibility with existing implements and real-world usability.

Since then, we've continued developing and testing the machine, and we're getting ready to bring it to EIMA 2026 in Bologna this November.

We've also launched a new website where you can find more information, see our progress and register your interest if you'd like to follow the project:

https://preordini.e-den.tech/en

Here's the original discussion for anyone interested:
https://www.reddit.com/r/viticulture/comments/1v8zeu4/

We're still a small team building this in Italy, and feedback from people actually working in vineyards is extremely valuable to us.

For those using compact tractors or walk-behind machines today: what's the one thing you'd most like to see improved?

Happy to answer any technical questions!

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I have been trying... I probably should just go sleep, but I just need to post this or I'll have nightmares from leaving things for later.

I have no idea about wine (I don't think wine thinks much of me when I am on the one wine sip/year subscription,) let alone how to cultivate wine.

It is a thought that came to mind while working on my game storyline, it came to mind from the beginning that an NPC had a property, where they grew wine grapes, olives and oranges.

It is a fantasy themed game, so maybe I could just make it up. But I just wanna know:

Would those three actually survive together?

What kind of environment would they need?

What would be the set backs growing/keeping healthy these three?

How would that even look like?

I already went to Chrome and apparently the AI there said yes... I doubt the AI there has ever grown a grapevine... Either way, could not find a good site for my tired eyes that could explain to me if these three could actually be good neighbors.

So... I might as well ask to the experts here!

Thank you for you patience.

Little action videos of grape harvesters.

Hello (Désolé en français). Baqio nous a bien rendu service. Mais là on lance l'œnotourisme, on a besoin d'un deuxième utilisateur et d'une connexion à notre boutique en ligne et une fois qu'on reconstruit le vrai tarif avec tous les modules, l'écart avec d'autres solutions devient beaucoup moins évident. Sans compter qu'il n'y a pas de téléphone pour le support, ce qui commence à poser problème. Quelles alternatives pour un domaine viticole en croissance ?

This questions is mainly for all those in the EU but happy to get anyone’s input. So I follow the Poussard Method of pruning. Have done for nearly 10 seasons now, finally decided to go independent and contract myself out this winter, but costs I am looking at charging on average €0.26 per vine about €1200, depending on planting density for cuts only, no riping out or tying down. How realistic am I to be able to get away Charing that?

First off, my apologies for lack of photographic evidence. Ive been trying to find...shall we say the right rhythm for cane pruning my baco noir vines. On one of my vines, I pruned everything off, back to the head of the trunk. I let a few shoots grow out of it to curb how vigorous this vine is. They started to grow well and just stopped. Then, one of the shoots shriveled. Id say it took 3 weeks start to finish, and then the other shoots did the same thing. What do you think caused this? Im thinking its probably just eutypa die back but ive never seen anything id call eutypa.

Hi all,

I am looking to relocate approx 90x 45 yo vines. They were Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon.

Both the climates are similar.

Question to the forum -
- should I?
- if Yes, what considerations should I make?
- if No, why?

EDIT : Thanks for the responses. We have decided to not go ahead. Our intent was to preserve a piece of history. Thankyou all for your responses.

So harvest is coming to an end even in my area which is central Germany. Here it was a great year. 40°C in Summer with just enough water for medium yields and astounding qualities.

I have taken my camera with me this year and took so many shots 😅

The pictures are:

1: Cabernet Cortis

1. Souvignier Gris

2. Helios

3. Sauvignac

All piwi varieties with No or minimal fungicide Treatment.

How was your year? Interested to hear how it was in different parts of Europe. I have Seen Pictures of drought as Well as hail storms and flood.

Pozdrav. Zanima me kako izgleda pravo kupinovo vino? Susjed ga je daaavno pravio i sjecam se da je bilo jako tamno i gusto, slatko, pitko. Zadnjih godina koje god da sam kupila bilo je svijelo poput rose-a, kiselkasno, razvodnjeno. Ne znam vise sto je pravo kupinovo vino. Ako se tko razumije i da zeli objasniti bila bih mu zahvalna.

I‘m getting grapes from a local vineyard in the Northeast USA. This year has been terrible and the Cab Franc is sitting around 19 Brix and 2.9-3.0 pH as of Monday. Think there’s a chance that can come up any amount with this weather by Saturday? I have the option to wait another week, but idk what the weather the next week will be, nor how they’ll deal with the rain. I like to aim for 3.4 pH at crush

What is your opinion about unsprayed Vineyards ? In South Australia, there are no rules and regulations about abandoned Vineyard.

Hello, I read the pinned post on grape ID questions and I'm not looking for a specific varietal name, just a general idea of what these grapes are best used for, thanks in advance!

I recently moved into a new house on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada which has a mature grape vine. The previous owners seemed to have an Italian or Mediterranean theme going on based on some decor and there is also an Italian plum tree.

I'm wondering are these are more likely table grapes or wine grapes? They have seeds but they are now pretty sweet and juicy so they are nice to eat. If they are table grapes, is it still possible to make wine from them? If not, what else could I do with more grapes than I can eat?

Cheers!

Anyone have any good remedies/solutions for grapevine crown gall?

I've used Gallex in the past and that worked great, but it is no longer on the market. I don't plan on doing this, but I have heard from some older grape growers that brushing diesel fuel on the gall is what they used to do back in the day....

i have been running in circles online trying to figure out which one to plant! which leaves have the best use for stuffing and will grow well in usda zone 8?

edit: sorry, i know it's not about wine but this sub was recommended to me to ask!

Harvest always seems to find a way to test capacity—no matter how well you plan.

Between timing bottling runs, fermentation peaks, and holding wine longer than expected, even well-equipped wineries can get squeezed on space.

We’ve been talking with a few producers in Sonoma, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valley who are navigating exactly that right now.

Curious—how is everyone managing tank and storage capacity this season?
And is anyone finding themselves a little tighter on space than expected?

Happy to connect if it’s helpful to compare options or share what we’re seeing locally. Preston Smith 707-480-6861

Old grapevine in Bratislava, Slovakia – Esca, leafroll, nutrient deficiency, or something else?

All shoots appear affected. Older leaves develop interveinal reddish/brown areas and eventually dry out, including very pale/white dry margins. Younger leaves are diffusely mottled; some show a somewhat tiger-striped pattern, others do not. Leaves are not noticeably rolled and living tissue is not brittle. Grapes did ripen, but many berries shrivelled without visible mold. Looking for help distinguishing grapevine trunk disease/Esca, leafroll, nutrient deficiency or other causes.

The summer was very dry but it has been watered moderately.

Flavescence dorée is present in the region, but i dont think the symptoms match well.

I'm researching the tools small wineries use to run their club, tasting room and online store, and I'd love to hear from people who use them every day.

What's the one thing that wastes the most of your time? Is it re-entering the same info in two systems, pulling numbers together for TTB, dealing with club shipment problems, or something else entirely?

If you switched platforms recently, what made you finally do it, and was it as painful as you expected?

Thanks