Natural wine, without the sermon.
There is no legal definition. There is a way of working. Here is what it actually means and what it does not.
You are afraid it will taste like a farmyard. Sometimes it does.
Natural wine has a reputation, and it did not get it for no reason. Some of it is cloudy, some of it fizzes when it should not, and a small amount of it genuinely tastes like cider that has had an accident.
We are not going to tell you that is all in your head. What we will tell you is that a badly made natural wine is a badly made wine, exactly like a badly made conventional one — and that the bottles here are chosen by someone who has to drink them all evening.
If a glass is not for you, say so and we will pour something else. That is a normal thing to happen and nobody will take it personally.
Less added, and more risk taken.
There is no law behind the phrase in most countries. Nobody inspects a bottle and awards it the word "natural" the way they do with "organic". That is worth knowing before anyone charges you extra for it.
What growers generally mean by it: the fruit is farmed organically or biodynamically; the wine ferments with the yeasts that were already on the grapes rather than a packet bought in; almost nothing is added; and sulphur, if used at all, is used sparingly at bottling.
Each of those choices removes a safety net. Commercial yeast makes fermentation predictable. Sulphur makes wine stable. Take them away and more can go wrong — which is why the good ones are the work of people paying close attention, not people being casual.
It is not a flavour. It is a method.
Natural does not automatically mean cloudy, funky or fizzy. Several of the bottles on our shelf are made this way and taste completely clean and precise — you would never guess unless somebody told you.
It also does not mean better by default. A carefully made conventional wine beats a careless natural one every time, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
What it does tend to mean is that the wine tastes of a specific place and a specific year, because less has been done to smooth those things out. That is the actual reason to be interested.
It is rare in Cyprus, and that is the whole point of this page.
You will not find much of this on the island. A handful of restaurants and a couple of shops, mostly in the cities, and very little of it Cypriot.
Our list is short on purpose — a shelf, not a book — and it holds Sicilian volcano wine, an Austrian biodynamic farm, a Greek family estate, and, the one we are proudest of, organic Cypriot wine from the Troodos mountains.
If you have been looking for this in Cyprus and coming up empty, that is not you being unobservant. There genuinely has not been much of it.
- Nerello MascaleseFrank Cornelissen · Castiglione di Sicilia, Etna
- Welschriesling · Pinot Gris · TraminerMeinklang · Burgenland
- Corvina · Corvinone · RondinellaMonte Dall'Ora · Castelrotto, Valpolicella
- MalagouziaChatzivaritis · Goumenissa, Macedonia
- Trebbiano · Grillo · MontepulcianoDjuce · Stockholm, from European growers
- Xynisteri · Mavro · VamvakadaTsiakkas · Pelendri, Pitsilia
Come and start with one glass.
You do not have to commit to a bottle to find out whether any of this is for you. Ask what is open, take a glass, and decide from there. We stop at a hundred pizzas a day — the earlier you come, the better your chances.
The things people actually ask.
Q.What is natural wine?
Natural wine generally means wine from organically or biodynamically farmed grapes, fermented with the wild yeasts present on the fruit, with minimal additions and little or no added sulphur. There is no legal definition of the term in most countries, so the phrase describes a way of working rather than a certification.
Q.Is natural wine always cloudy?
No. Cloudiness comes from not filtering the wine, which is common but not universal in natural winemaking. Many low-intervention wines are clear and taste precise; cloudiness is a stylistic outcome, not a definition.
Q.Is natural wine better than conventional wine?
Not automatically. A carefully made conventional wine is better than a carelessly made natural one. What low-intervention winemaking tends to give is a wine that tastes more specifically of its place and vintage, because less has been done to standardise it.
Q.Where can I drink natural wine in Cyprus?
Filomena Pizzeria Napoletana, at 1 Aristotelous in Larnaca, Cyprus, pours a short list of natural and organic wines from small growers, including organic Cypriot Xynisteri from the Tsiakkas winery in the Troodos mountains, alongside Neapolitan pizza. It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 6pm to 10pm.