Blue Zones Suggest You Should Drink Natural Wine to Live to 100. Here’s Everything You Need to Know About It

From someone who specialises in the stuff

It feels a bit weird writing about wine here.

But this nothing if not a lifestyle Substack and if you drink it, wine is lifestyle.

For those of you new around here, you may not know that wine has been my life for the last 10 years, seven of them as a wine store and bar owner in the UK, three as a wine writer. I specialise in many different areas of wine, from Burgundy and Beaujolais, to the subject of this article.

Natural wine.

The wine that was recently featured in Netflix’s Blue Zones: live to 100 documentary.

There’s a lot of misinformation and stereotypes around what natural wine is or isn’t and I thought it time to set the record straight and talk a bit about natural wine and health. After all, if you want to live a simple, soft life, health is a big part of that.

Salut!

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There are not many times you’ll hear on mainstream TV that “drinking wine is like taking a health supplement.”

But that’s exactly what Dan Buettner proclaimed in the wildly popular Blue Zones, live to 100 documentary as he smashed down a glass of Greek wine.

Specifically, he was talking about natural wine. Wine made with as little intervention as possible.

As a wine pro, natural wine is one of my specialities.

It’s still misunderstood. The term comes with more baggage than JFK and multiple misconceptions. Like all wine is natural (it’s not) or that all natural wine tastes like cider (it doesn’t).

I’m here to explain exactly what natural wine is, where to find it and why — scientifically speaking — it’s better for you than most other forms of alcohol.

Which is exactly why it was on the Blue Zones documentary in the first place.

Natural wine in one sentence is…

A wine that has been made with as little intervention as possible, both in the vineyard and the cellar.

There is no official definition for natural wine but the following is largely accepted:

• No synthetic chemicals (e.g. pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers) in the vineyard.

• Spontaneously fermented using only natural ambient yeast (most “non-natural” winemakers add lab-bred yeast to kickstart fermentation).

• No chemicals or additives in the cellar (although most non-militant natural winemakers will add a small amount of sulphites at bottling).

Natural wine is the resistance movement to the commercial wine industry. It’s made and sold by people who are pissed off with what wine has become — little more than a grape-based chemical cocktail.

They’re angry that industrial wine hoodwinks their customers by pretending that all wine is natural when nothing could be further from the truth. Up to 76 additives are legally allowed in wine in the US (and 59 in Europe). A lot of wine is made in factories, the scale and quality of which would shock you.

Natural wine is a return to the old school. To tradition. To how wine has been made for thousands of years.

That Greek wine made in the Ikaria Blue Zone? That was natural wine. It didn’t see any chemicals. It was aged in buried amphora which is an ancient way of ageing wine, before wood and steel took over.

It it the very definition of natural wine.

And the science is clear — natural wine is better for you. In fact, it could be good for you.

Not all alcohol is made equal

Here’s something many people don’t know. Not all alcohol affects your body in the same way.

This is something I’ve extensively written about before. There are two studies that are incredibly important when explaining the differences between natural and commercial wine — and why the former is better for you.

First, a study proved that natural wine lowers the level of acetaldehyde in the blood (one of the toxic compounds your liver turns alcohol into) which means toxins are flushed out faster.

Second, a study proved that your liver breaks down sulphites before it breaks down alcohol. The fewer sulphites, the less your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) will be.

In the USA, wine can contain up to 150 parts per million of sulphites in red, 200 in white, and 400 in dessert.

Natural winemakers will either only add a tiny amount of sulphites, or they’ll add none at all.

It’s not only about the sulphites. Natural wine is also lower in two other important components — alcohol and sugar.

The dirty little secret of the commercial wine industry is how much sugar is left in poor-quality wine in order to mask bitterness and boost the flavours and mouthfeel. And studies suggest that sugar and alcohol do not mix.

And stylistically, many natural winemakers prefer light, fresh wines so will opt for lower alcohol in their wines. Call it a rebellion against the huge bruisers you get on the commercial side.

Finally, there are the vineyard chemicals. I’ve met too many winemakers who’ve lost their parents to diseases born from exposure to pesticides and herbicides.

We’re talking Parkinson’s. Cancer.

These delights aren’t only reserved for winemakers and vineyard workers, they’re for you too. Chemical residue is regularly found in finished wines.

Not such an issue in natural wine where no chemicals are used.

Not to mention that natural wines have been found to contain high levels of polyphenols (good for your cells) and probiotic bacteria (good for your gut).

Whilst alcohol is — and always will be — toxic in large quantities, there’s alcohol and then there’s alcohol.

It’s not all the same.

Natural wine doesn’t have to be funky, faulty and farmy

One of the biggest stereotypes of natural wine is that it’s, well, a bit crap.

Many people assume it’s faulty fermented grape juice bottled with a funky label and sold for double what it’s really worth.

In some cases, that’s true. There are certainly more and more winemakers insistent on making what the French call glou-glou (the simple, gluggable stuff) and commanding high prices.

Good natural wine is also hard to make because you can’t rely on manipulation like chemicals to ward off rot, or sulphites to kill rogue bacteria. So there are plenty of bottles that taste like the smell of my hamster’s cage when I’d not cleaned it for a week.

But natural wine is a process, not a style. You can find plenty of wines made with minimal intervention that taste similar to conventional wine, just with more concentration, energy and deliciousness.

After all, some of the most expensive wines in the world are naturally made including Domaine de la Romanée Conti which regularly sells for $10-$20k a bottle. No one is calling that wine faulty.

I sold many wines in my own store and bar that were naturally made but no one knew. They just thought they tasted like conventional wine but with added zing.

Even wine pros get confused, like the winemaker who insisted his wine wasn’t natural even though, by all definitions, it absolutely was. It just didn’t have a funky label and wasn’t made in a garage.

The idea that natural wine is always faulty and / or funky is an irritating stereotype, one that I fear is going to follow the movement around for many decades to come.

But now, you know better.

You don’t have to live on a Greek island to drink natural wine

If I hear the phrase they keep all the best wine to themselves one more time, I’m going to clock someone.

It’s complete BS that you can’t find good — in this instance good natural — wine outside of the places it’s made. Sure, I don’t think the Ikaria Blue Zone is exporting much of what they make, but plenty of other natural wine hotspots sure are.

But because natural wine is such a hot topic, it’s at the mercy of marketing BS. So buy carefully.

The easiest way to do this is to find independent wine stores and bars that specialise in natural wine.

Google them. Find a store nearby or online. Ask them for help.

If you’re going rogue and sourcing bottles yourself without the help of a specialised merchant, look for the following words (it’s no guarantee these words in isolation means the wine is natural, but it’s a good start):

• Organic

• Biodynamic

• Dry-farmed (irrigation is a big no-no in natural wine communities)

• Naturally fermented / Spontaneous fermentation / Wild yeast

• Unfiltered / unfined

• Aged in amphora (a popular ageing vessel in the natural wine world)

• No added sulphites

Natural wine is made in every single winemaking country I can think of, but there are parts of the world that make more than others, because decent natural wine producers tend to stick together. Hotspots include:

• The Loire Valley, France

• Beaujolais, France

• Jura, France

• Georgia (the country, not the state)

• Catalunya, Spain

• Oregon, USA

• Victoria, Australia

• Sicily, Italy

Natural wine isn’t going anywhere

For 7900 out of 8000 years of existence, wine was made naturally.

Wine, as we know it today has only existed since the technology — and chemicals — came along to make the clean, clear, fruity stuff that passes as wine today.

Commercial wine is the fad. Not natural wine.

Having spent over 10 years immersed in the world — and science — of natural wine, I wasn’t surprised to see it make an appearance on the Blue Zones documentary.

Yes, alcohol is bad for you. And whilst natural wine is still booze — and should always be consumed in moderation because of that — there’s enough scientific and anecdotal evidence that says if you’re going to drink wine, you could go far worse than picking up a bottle of the natural stuff.

Will it make you live to 100? In isolation, almost certainly not.

But the evidence suggests that if you are going to ingest the devil’s brew, you’ve got a damn sight better chance of living longer on the natural stuff than the conventional.

It’s worth a shot, no?

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This article is for entertainment purposes only and must not be considered medical advice.

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