What Is Natural Wine? Think back to the time when wine was first introduced to society. There were no machines that extract the juices from freshly harvested grapes and no yeast to aid in the fermentation process. It was just good old stomping on the grapes and allowing the fruit to ferment on its own in a wooden barrel kept in the cellar. Since there were no "additives" used in any part of the process back then, the wine was considered pure and, considering the different conditions each batch were subjected to, not all wine flavors were consistent. This is basically what the natural wine movement is trying to get back to: no yeast, no enzymes, no extra tannins, sugar or water. It's just good wine made the old-fashioned way. "The wines make themselves" or so the natural winemakers like to say. This is because the only external factor that winemakers add to the process of winemaking is taking care of the vineyard, harvesting and squeezing out the juice from the grapes to be placed in containers for fermentation. The rest is up to the wine.