At first there was purely natural wine – from the grapes picked and left overnight in a tumbler which got fermented by the natural yeast present on grape skins. Maybe this produced enough wine for consumption by a man and his family.
But then may be driven by greed or sensing profit making, he planned to grow more grapes to make more wine in order to sell to others. For this it became necessary to clear the land of all its natural diversity (flora and fauna) and create a level ground to grow vines (which infact holds true for all agriculture).
I feel this was the major disruption in the natural ecosystems existing in human habitat with a devastating effect.
With the natural plants, weeds, organisms gone the soil was nourished with artificial chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides (often sprayed with heavy machines) to keep vine diseseas like mildew, mold, rot etc at bay.
Down the years the cumulative destruction of environment by such intervenist human activity lead to the need for what we call today as the Natural Wine Movement. Natural, organic, biodynamic wines are all offshoots of this and is now appropriately grouped under an all encompassing term called as Sustainability – which includes sustainable practices not just protect the vineyard or its environment but to make winemaking activities sustain all its stakeholders.
Realization has dawned globally that such sustainability should also mandatorily include the smaller grape gowers and even the workers in the vineyards who could be at the bottom of the winemaking pyramid. Nothing exemplifies this better than the ongoing COVID19 pandemic crisis.
(All pictures from Google)
