‘Nature in the glass’: Principles and practices in low-intervention winemaking

Wine is often portrayed and perceived as a natural product; however, in fact, it's predominantly a highly industrialized, processed commodity. The vast majority of vine is cultivated in monocultural systems, requiring the intensive use of pesticides and agricultural machinery. Advanced cellar technologies and oenological practices standardize vinification, controlling and manipulating microbial and biochemical processes to ensure a uniform product. This approach has faced criticism, primarily due to its ecological implications. In response, a niche market has developed around so-called ‘natural’ or ‘low-intervention’ wines, emphasizing environmentally conscious production methods, resulting in a distinctive product. In a qualitative research approach, we explore the alternative practices which reflect the winemaker's care for soil and plant health, support microorganisms in the must, and preserve the wine's ingrediencies. Through practices like no-till, soil fertilization, and spontaneous fermentation, low-intervention winemakers aspire to stop soil degradation, regenerate their plants' microbiome and respect the grape's indigenous fermentation capacity, allowing in-situ yeasts to do their job and craft an individual wine flavour. Our article proposes a framework to explore these practices and the underlying philosophy, where the observed processes and winemaker's attitudes reflect an approach of ‘co-producing with nature’, which we explore by adopting conceptual ideas from more-than-human geographies. • Low-intervention wine is a segment in the wine market that challenges conventional production methods. • Diverse in execution, low-intervention winemaking practices can be conceptualized by using a framework of co-producing. • Synthesising our empirical findings, we conceptualize co-producing as a process of four interrelated elements, i.e., taking co-producing and co-producers seriously, caring for them, and learning to be affected by them.