Natural Born Wine founders Oli Hudson and Sam Rogg on the best natural wines to try right now
On our visit to Natural Born Wine founders Oli Hudson and Sam Rogg’s converted mews house in Camberwell, which we currently have for sale, we thought it would be remiss not to tap them for their wine know-how. Here, they share the five best natural wines to try right now, with ruminations, anecdotes and tales on the human story behind each one. Cheers!
Case Sparse Rosso 2018, Conestabile della Staffa (Umbria, Italy)
Grapes: Sangiovese, Ciliegiolo
Tastes like: Tart strawberry, diced herbs, slight citrus, spring
Friends with: Grilled veg, fish, roast chicken, lovers of light red wine
Wines of Tomorrow
For natural winemaker Danilo Marcucci, the sign that he has made a good wine is whether or not it reminds him of his grandparents. It was his grandfather’s homemade wine, after all, that inspired him to stop selling conventional wines and become a natural winemaker several years ago – at a time when it wasn’t fashionable or financially beneficial to do so in Italy. But Danilo was convinced that there had to be a better way for the environment and our health – than producing wines on an industrial scale. Within just a few short years of hands-on study he was advising other winemakers across Italy on how they could produce their wines more naturally, helping them to learn to trust in nature and their own instincts over synthetic additives and harsh chemicals. It wasn’t until 2015 that he finally released his own wines through his wife Alessandra’s family estate Conestabile della Staffa near Lake Trasimeno. For decades, they had been selling off the organic grapes, but with Danilo’s newfound knowledge he decided to take the winemaking in-house and start bottling wonders. The ‘Case Sparse’ range – one bianco and one red – are a new addition to his now famous Conestabile portfolio and they capture so elegantly Danilo’s desire for easy-drinking honest wines. Bringing together Umbria’s best-loved grapes, hand-harvested, with no added sulphur, temperature control or filtering whatsoever, these are those Italian wines of yesteryear and perhaps – with Danio’s help – of tomorrow too.
Bianco 2019, Consetabile della Staffa (Umbria, Italy)
Grapes: Trebbiano, Malvasia
Tastes like: Wild flowers, peaches, squeeze of lemon, starry nights
Friends with: Bubble baths, spaghettini aglio e olio, aperifi
For the better
No skin contact, no added sulphur, no temperature control and made with spontaneous fermentation, this fresh white with light body and moreish minerality is proof that sometimes nature really does know best. ‘I grew up in a small village in Umbria and started making wine when I was just six with my grandpa, says Danilo Marcuci who tends to the grapes at Conestabile della Staffa, which has been in his wife’s family since the 1700s. ‘When I was eighteen, having moved to Rome to study Architecture, I started to sell Umbrian wines and black truffles to the city’s restaurants. For a long time in the nineties, I drank the most important wines in the world and met the most famous producers but gradually I felt very bad in my body so l went to the hospital, where after one week the doctor said: ‘Mr Marcucci your blood is not clear, there are many chemical substances in there.’ I was so scared that I stopped drinking wines for seven months and on repeating the analysis my blood was clear. One day in the early of 2000s, I was lunching at my parents’ home and they poured me a glass of wine with the colour of amber made by our neighbour Vittorio Mattioli and I asked, ‘Dad what you are pouring me? He replied: You stupid man, you drank the ‘best’ wines in the world but you forgot to drink the really genuine wine. From that moment my life changed radically and immediately I began working with Vittorio at Cantina Collecapretta. I had a very hard time at first, because natural wine was considered by many to be ‘folklore’, but I was determined to create the possibility to drink naturally. In the years that followed, many people have asked me to make natural wines at their vineyards and now l run 10 different cellars as an artisan winemaker. When I started making natural wines I was very alone for a long time but now natural wine has a great impact on new generations. I really trust these new generations – they could change the planet for the better.’
‘Alpino’, Cantina Furlani 201Z (Trento, Italy)
Grapes: Vernaccia, lagarino bianco, nosiola & verderbara
Tastes like: Pears, pine trees, the wind in your face, salty apples
Friends with: Aperitifs, good news, preparing Sunday roasts
Bottled snow
Fourth generation winemaker Matteo Furlani tends to his family’s small parcels of vines, high above the city of Trento in northern Italy, surrounded by the dramatic, sometimes snow-capped Dolomite mountains. Like his father and grandfather, Matteo sees no need to use synthetic chemicals on the land, incorporating biodynamic preparations and natural practices instead to create his incredible range of wines, which include a series of slightly sparkling varieties in milky shades of magenta, pink and in the case of this bottle, almost white. Unlike a lot of Champagne, these wines receive no added sugar or yeast before their second fermentation in the bottle. Unfined and unfiltered, they rely wholly on the natural sugar in the grapes to produce their bubbles, and the resulting wines can be a veritable kaleidoscope of flavours that open your mind and bring back memories. How bubbly they become is down to Mother Nature, the timing of the winemaker and luck. ‘If unicorns made wine, they would probably look and taste like these,’ we thought when we came across Furlani while in Italy. We have never devoured a bottle of wine quicker than we did that night with this ‘Alpino’ and we thank the moon and stars that we are able to bring these bottles of joy to the UK for all to enjoy.
Cepparu 2018, Ceppaiolo (Umbria, Italy)
Grapes: Sangiovese, Alicante, Trebbiano, Malvasia
Tastes like: Fresh tomatoes, blackberry jam, sour cherries.
Friends with: Salty stuff, alfresco dining, lovers of light red wine
Taste the past
This tiny two-hectare vineyard was rescued by winemakers Danilo Marcucci and Riccardo Pennaforti after the two visited the site and discovered it had 70-year-old vines, some of the oldest in the region. The cellar, if you could call it that, is little more than a stone shed housing original 1950s winemaking equipment that Danilo and Riccardo continue to use, including an old vertical press – the only technology used in the entire winemaking process here. Widely referred to as the ‘Yoda of natural wine’ in Italy, where he advises many producers all over the country on how to create well-balanced wine free from added sulphur and synthetic additives, Danilo refers to Ceppaiolo as his ‘happy place…where I come in my free time to be alone and make wine my way’. Walking through the vineyard, which feels more like someone’s over-grown garden, you can’t help but understand why he was drawn to this spot. The vines are thick and tall with age, the ground a multi-coloured carpet of flowers and wildlife. There goes a hare,’ he gestures with one hand, while showing us a small bird’s nest burrowed into a vine’s trunk. I’m not interested in aging wine,’ says Danilo of his approach, ‘If a wine is full of sulphites, of course it can age, but it’s not really ageing, it’s mummified. I’m interested in the life of a wine. And what a life it is inside this bottle.
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