What is low-intervention wine?
The short answer. Low-intervention wine is made from grapes farmed without chemicals, fermented with the wild yeast that lives on them and then left alone as much as possible. Nothing is added to change the taste (at most a little sulphur, more on that below) and nothing much is taken out.
You may know it as natural wine. We prefer "low-intervention" because it describes how our growers actually work, and because "natural" has come to cover some bottles we would not drink either. If you once had a natural wine that tasted of vinegar or a farmyard, that was a faulty bottle, not the style. Good low-intervention wine tastes clean, bright and alive.
Organic, biodynamic or natural?
All natural wines start with organic grapes, but not every organic wine is natural. Organic and biodynamic rules mostly cover the vineyard. Natural wine carries the same care into the cellar.
| In the vineyard | In the cellar | |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional | Synthetic sprays and fertilisers allowed | Dozens of additives allowed: cultured yeast, sugar, acid, oak chips, colour and more |
| Organic | No synthetic sprays or fertilisers | Fewer additives allowed, but still quite a few |
| Biodynamic | Organic, plus treating the farm as one living system (herbal preparations, planting by the seasons) | Stricter than organic, but some additives still allowed |
| Natural | Organic or biodynamic, picked by hand | Wild yeast from the grapes and the cellar, nothing added, no heavy filtering, at most a little sulphur |
There is no official "natural" label in most countries, so you won't always see the word on the bottle. That is why we visit the growers and ask how they work.
A word on sulphur
Sulphur (sulphites on the label) protects wine from spoiling. Conventional wines can carry a lot of it. Some of our growers add none at all, which takes real skill and a very clean cellar.
Others add a small amount at bottling, in a difficult year or for a wine that has a long journey ahead. Singapore is a long way from Europe, and we would rather drink a sound bottle with a touch of sulphur than a broken one without.
So we don't hold to a strict no-sulphur rule. The grower steps in only when it makes the wine better, and never to change what it is.
What to expect in the glass
Low-intervention wine is alive, so it can behave a little differently from what you are used to. Everything below is normal. If one of our wine guides sent you here, this is the part it meant.
- Cloudy. Unfiltered wine keeps fine particles from the grapes. Stand the bottle upright for a day and pour gently if you prefer it clearer.
- Sediment. Harmless, and a sign nothing was stripped out. Leave the last splash in the bottle.
- A light fizz. Some wines keep a little natural gas from fermentation, which protects them on the journey. Swirl it out in the glass, or give the closed bottle a gentle turn before opening.
- Needs air. A wine that rested without much air can smell of struck match or smoke, rubber, boiled eggs or cabbage when first opened. Winemakers call this "reduction". It is not a wine fault. Give the glass a good swirl or pour the bottle into a jug or decanter and wait 15 to 30 minutes.
- Every bottle a little different. Each vintage reflects its own year, and two bottles of the same wine can taste slightly different. That is part of the point.
When something really is wrong. A sharp vinegar smell, a smell of wet cardboard or a damp cellar (a corked bottle), or a wine that is brown and flat when it should be bright: those are faults, not character. Let us know on WhatsApp with a photo and tell us what you noticed. We look at every report, pass it back to the grower and use it to decide what we bring in next!
Storing and serving in Singapore
Heat is the enemy here, more than anywhere.
- Store in a wine fridge or the coolest dark spot at home, ideally below 18°C. Never in the car.
- Serve cooler than you think: whites and orange wines straight from the fridge, reds with 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge first.
- Once open, keep the bottle corked in the fridge. Most of our wines last three to five days, and many taste better on day two.
How we choose our growers
Since 2018 we have bought from small growers we know by name: people who farm their own vines and make wine with as little interference as possible. Today they are in France, Germany and China.
We visit, taste in the cellar and ask how each wine is made. If a grower works the way described on this page and the wine is good, we bring it in. Often that means a few cases or a few dozen bottles, which is why the list hears about them first.
Not sure where to start?
The best way to understand low-intervention wine is to open a bottle. Not sure what you like? Reach out to us on WhatsApp or reply to any of our emails with what you usually drink and we will point you somewhere good.