We're so inspired by Nous, a progressive cooperative based on sharing resources, regenerative practices encouraging soil health and biodiversity, and enabling small farmers to succeed in an industry dominated by BIG wine. Could this be the future for small-scale natural winemaking?

So, you're planning a trip to Napa or Sonoma and want the bucolic wine country experience. But now, you're fully aware of the difference between conventional and natural wine, so you can't just head up Highway 29 and wing it like in the old days, before you KNEW. A quandary, for sure, as most of Napa isn't farmed organically. And generally winemaking there is very formulaic, the following of a recipe to achieve a consistent product that gets the scores and justifies the price tag. In other words, the opposite of natural. Because, let's be honest, most visitors are coming for the Disneyland wine country experience -- the perfectly groomed vineyards, the cult Cabernets, the fancy shit.

You’ve probably heard the term “volcanic wine” thrown around lately.  As in, “I only drink volcanic wines these days,” from your hipster friend, or “I heard about this volcanic wine from Etna called Susucaru from Action Bronson, but I can’t find it anywhere,” from about a million followers of Action’s Vice show, F**ck That’s Delicious.  […]

There's a ton of excellent natural wine out there, one just needs to know how to find it. But without ingredient labels to guide you, you might be asking yourself: "how do I find such wines if my wine shop/restaurant server/local Whole Foods doesn't know anything about how the wine is made?" Answer: acquaint yourselves with the importers who specialize in low-intervention wines! information alone will provide important clues about the style and constitution of the juice, and help guide you when choosing blindly.

I love finding new California winemakers who are making clean, delicious and extremely interesting wines that are actually affordable. The Living Wines Collective, a band of four young winemakers based in Orinda, California, are doing just that, with several edgy brands under their umbrella (among them, Populis, Elizia and Les Lunes).