GLOU-GLOU
Dating to the 1600s, the term has come to define not just a style of wine, but, some would argue, the whole natural wine aesthetic.
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All language moves in cycles, influenced by shifts in culture and values; wine is no different. Natural wine, once considered flagrant to many, has become pop culture. Its ethos, style and the descriptors that it compels have set trends that are now ingrained industry standards. In 2023, we are midcycle. What today presents is not a way out of that cycle, but a full acceptance of it. As the idiom of natural wine mellows from its revolutionary peak, it’s as good a time as any to appreciate the one undeniable fact: There are more ways to express how a wine tastes, or makes us feel, than ever before.
Is This Even Wine?
The modern winemaker is no longer content to color safely within the lines. The definition of wine today is a bigger tent than ever, welcoming in hybrid grapes, co-ferments with foraged fruits, herbal infusions and a spectrum of colors that challenge the expected categories of white, rosé and red. Here’s a taste of wine’s experimental side.
Chestnut Flowers in Your Chardonnay
A handful of natural winemakers are pushing the limits of co-fermentation, infusing their wines with everything from rose petals to sumac berries and basil.
Rose, But Make It Weird
Copper-hued, flor-aged, built to cellar——the style’s experimental side is proving there’s more to the category than simply commerce.
Not Another Pinot Noir
By focusing on co-ferments, hybrids and foraged ingredients, a natural wine movement is creating a more expansive and accessible definition of wine.
CRUNCHY
This staple of the modern sommelier lexicon captures the difficulty of articulating the convergence of
taste and texture.
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MOUSE
Variably described as tasting like "corn nuts," "puppy's breath" and "vomit," the term describes wine’s most controversial modern flaw.
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FUNKY
The term is now used as a common wine descriptor, and a symbol of how the line between delight and revulsion in wine is often blurry.
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CRUSHABLE
Once the domain of bro culture, “crushable” is today’s preferred shorthand for carefree drinking.
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