Megapurple, fish bladder extracts, rodenticides, fungicides, herbicides, water backs, enzymes, acid additions, and reverse osmosis are standard winemaking and grape growing techniques.
If you drink wine, then it is 100% likely that your wines have been manipulated in one of these ways. This shouldn’t be a surprise, though. In 2009, Keith Wallace (the founder of the Wine School of Philadelphia) blew the lid of winemaking manipulations in a series of articles in the Daily Beast. He earned a lot of hate for revealing the truth (check out the comments from his angry fellow winemakers, including Adam Lee of Siduri).
Natural, organic, and biodynamic wines have been controversial since the school was founded in 2001. It’s a topic we love, and our advocacy of natural wines has permeated every wine class we’ve taught for the last 20 years. Our students have been asking us for years to offer a full-on natural wine class, and here it is. This is a tour-de-force of the crazy-beautiful people behind the natural wine movement. You will be tasting wines from around the world and experiencing every flavor wine can offer.
Many of the wines featured in this class are rare, so please don’t come to class expecting to pick up these wines at your local Wine & Spirits store.
