Natural vs Organic vs Biodynamic Wine

Walk into any trendy wine bar in 2026 and you’ll see the words “natural,” “organic,” and “biodynamic” plastered everywhere. The problem? Most people – including many of the people selling it – can’t clearly explain what these terms mean or how they differ. Some treat “natural wine” as a religion. Others dismiss it as hipster marketing. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.

Let’s cut through the noise.

Organic Wine: The One With Actual Rules

Organic wine is the most straightforward of the three because it has legally enforceable definitions – though those definitions vary by country.

In the vineyard: Organic certification (USDA, EU, or equivalent) means no synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Growers use natural alternatives like copper sulfate, cover crops, and beneficial insects.

In the winery: This is where it gets tricky. In the US, “organic wine” means no added sulfites at all. In the EU, organic wine can contain sulfites, just at lower levels than conventional wine (100 mg/L for reds, 150 mg/L for whites, compared to 150/200 mg/L conventional limits).

The certification: Real organic wine carries a certified label (USDA Organic, EU Organic leaf logo). This means inspections, paperwork, and compliance. It’s not just a marketing claim.

The catch: Many excellent producers farm organically but don’t bother with certification because the bureaucracy is expensive and time-consuming. So “not certified organic” doesn’t mean “not organic.” But “certified organic” does mean something.

Biodynamic Wine: Organic Plus Cosmic Vibes

Biodynamic farming is organic farming plus a set of philosophical principles developed by Rudolf Steiner in 1924. If organic is science-based, biodynamic is science-plus-spirituality.

Everything organic does, plus:

• Preparations: Nine specific preparations (numbered 500-508) made from things like cow manure fermented in cow horns, yarrow blossoms in stag bladders, and oak bark in animal skulls. These are applied in tiny quantities to compost or sprayed on vines.
• Lunar calendar: Planting, pruning, and harvesting are timed according to the lunar and astrological calendar. Different days are designated as “root days,” “fruit days,” “flower days,” and “leaf days.”
• The farm as organism: The vineyard is treated as a self-sustaining ecosystem. Livestock, cover crops, and compost are integrated into a holistic system.

The certification: Demeter is the main certifying body. It’s stricter than organic certification and includes the cosmic preparation requirements.

The honest take: The holistic farming part – treating the vineyard as an ecosystem, building soil health, reducing external inputs – is genuinely good viticulture supported by real science. The cow horns and lunar calendar? That’s where you’ll find plenty of skeptics. But here’s the thing: many of the world’s most celebrated producers (Domaine Leroy in Burgundy, Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace, Château Pontet-Canet in Bordeaux) are biodynamic. Whether the cosmic stuff actually works or whether it just forces farmers to pay very close attention to their vines is an open question. Either way, the results often speak for themselves.

Natural Wine: The Wild West

Here’s where it gets genuinely complicated, because there is no universally agreed-upon legal definition of natural wine. France introduced a “Vin Méthode Nature” certification in 2020, but globally, “natural wine” remains largely self-declared.

The general consensus among natural wine advocates:

• Farming: Organic or biodynamic (no synthetics in the vineyard)
• Fermentation: Only native/indigenous yeasts (no commercial yeast strains)
• Additives: Nothing added in the winery – no sugar (chaptalization), no acid adjustments, no fining agents, no commercial enzymes
• Sulfites: None added, or minimal amounts at bottling (typically under 30 mg/L total)
• Processing: No filtration, no heavy manipulation

What this means in practice: Natural wine is made with minimal intervention from grape to bottle. The winemaker’s role is more “guide” than “engineer.”

The good: When it works, natural wine is vibrant, alive, and genuinely expressive of its place and vintage. There’s an energy to great natural wine that’s hard to replicate with conventional methods.

The bad: When it doesn’t work, natural wine can be funky, volatile, mousy, or just plain faulty. Without the safety net of sulfites and other stabilizers, there’s a higher risk of things going wrong. And because there’s no regulated standard, quality varies wildly. Some natural wine producers are meticulous craftspeople. Others are riding a trend.

The Sulfites Debate

Sulfites (sulfur dioxide, SO2) are the most contentious topic in this whole conversation.

What sulfites do: They’re an antioxidant and antimicrobial. They protect wine from spoilage and oxidation. Winemakers have used them for centuries.

The natural wine argument: Sulfites mask terroir, homogenize wine, and some people report headaches or allergic reactions.

The conventional argument: Sulfites in the amounts used in wine are generally safe for most people (the headache thing is likely caused by histamines and tannins, not sulfites). Without them, wine is less stable and more prone to faults.

The reality: Dried apricots contain roughly 10 times more sulfites than a glass of wine. If you can eat dried fruit without a reaction, sulfites probably aren’t your problem. That said, many great wines are made with very low sulfite additions, and the trend toward using less is probably a good thing overall.

Orange Wine: The Fourth Color

While we’re here, let’s talk about orange wine, which often shows up alongside natural wine on menus.

Orange wine is white wine made like red wine – the grape skins stay in contact with the juice during fermentation (sometimes for weeks or months). This gives the wine an amber/orange color, more tannin, and a distinctive flavor profile: think dried apricot, honey, bruised apple, and tea.

It’s not new. Georgia (the country) has been making it for 8,000 years in clay vessels called qvevri. But it’s experienced a massive revival alongside the natural wine movement.

Orange wine isn’t inherently natural, and natural wine isn’t inherently orange. But the Venn diagram overlaps heavily.

How to Find Good Bottles (Without Falling for Hype)

Don’t buy labels, buy wine. A “natural” label doesn’t guarantee quality any more than a “conventional” label guarantees it. Taste critically.

Find a good shop. Independent wine shops with knowledgeable staff are your best resource. Tell them what you like, what you’ve tried, and what you’re curious about. A good wine merchant won’t push ideology – they’ll push good bottles.

Start with producers, not movements. Instead of saying “I want natural wine,” try producers known for quality: Marcel Lapierre (Beaujolais), Radikon (Friuli), COS (Sicily), Gut Oggau (Austria), or Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (who’ve been organic since the 1980s without ever calling themselves “natural”).

Watch for red flags. If a wine smells like nail polish remover, barnyard, or vinegar and someone tells you “that’s just what natural wine tastes like” – no. That’s a fault. Great natural wine should still taste like good wine.

Use technology. When you find a bottle you love, scan the label and log it. When you find one you hate, log that too. Over time, patterns emerge. Maybe you love low-sulfite Beaujolais but hate unfiltered skin-contact whites. That’s useful information.

Does Any of This Actually Matter?

Yes and no.

For the planet: Organic and biodynamic farming is better for soil health, biodiversity, and water quality. That matters. A lot.

For the wine: Great wine is great wine regardless of philosophy. There are transcendent natural wines and transcendent conventional wines. There are terrible examples of both.

For you: What matters is whether the wine in your glass makes you happy. If you prefer the funky, alive character of natural wine, drink that. If you prefer the precision and consistency of conventionally made wine, drink that. Just don’t let anyone make you feel inferior for either choice.

The best approach is to stay curious, taste widely, and track what you enjoy. Sommo’s AI label scanner can identify wines instantly, and the journal feature lets you build a personal record of every bottle – natural, organic, biodynamic, or otherwise. Over time, you’ll develop your own informed opinion about what matters to you. And that beats following any trend.

Photo by ALEXANDRA TORRO on Unsplash