Essential Natty Wines

Is there any better way of opening a bottle of Prosecco? I don't think there is. I'll tell you what I got, I've got the Natty Wine Starter Pack here. I've got six of the best wines to get you started on your natural wine journey. And now I like, I like a glass of Pinot Grigio when I can't have Wetherspoons, man. If you like a glass of Pinot Grigio at the ******* Wetherspoons, that's it, that's what you want to be drinking. It's called Chin Chin. This is the wine that people go nuts for, although I'm not even sure if this is natural or not. All I know is that this wine is convincing people to start drinking Natty Wine. So if you've had Vina Verde before, it's crisp, it's fresh, it's the one that you have with a plate of sardines, it's got this little bit of spritziness. But this one, as it's unfiltered and unfined, the cloudiness gives it an extra layer of complexity, so it's got this yeasty sort of textural mouthfeel. I'll be honest, it didn't give me an out-of-body experience when I drank it, but the fact that people are going to buy this purely on the label and the affordable price, they're more likely to buy another wine with a cool label and then they'll buy another wine with a cool label and they'll start drinking proper Natty's after that. I'm a fan of what Chin Chin is doing for the natural wine movement and the natural wine community. So the next wine on me Natty Wine starter pack is this Gruner Weltliner from Anna & Martin Andorfer. So these guys are in Kamptal in Austria and I thought it'd be a good one to show you because if you're a Chardonnay drinker, you're going to love Gruner Weltliner because it's quite similar, it's got them sort of citrus and creamy stone fruit characteristics, it takes on the place, it's quite a neutral grape variety. But this one, you can see it's cloudy, don't be scared of that, that just means that it's been unfiltered a bit like the Chin Chin. And all of that adds to the complexity of the wine, it gives it a bit of a texture. It is a lovely colour. My shirt was a lovely colour before this. When I go to the races, I like a glass of Prosecco. We all like a glass of Prosecco now and again but what about the cloudy Prosecco? What about this? You know how cloudy lemonade? Well, this is cloudy Prosecco. Normal Prosecco is made in big tanks, that's how they get the bubbles, they do a second fermentation in big tanks but this one has had the second fermentation in the bottle. So we've got lots of little floaters in the bottle and all of that is all the dead yeast and stuff. You know how when you drink champagne and it's got that bready yeasty complexity? That's all the dead yeast flavours going into the wine. Didn't be scared of them little bits, it'll put hairs on your chest, see? So this is from Casa Belfi, right? This is a really popular Natty wine. It's got a little gentle fizz, it hasn't got that sticky sweet characteristic that a lot of Proseccos have. It's got a little bit of a cidery sort of funky aroma to it. Lovely like sherbet lemon aromas, it's yeasty. If you're stuck drinking the same Prosecco week in, week out, I would give this a go. Anyone who likes craft beer or anyone who drinks Berliner Weiss, you'll love this sort of stuff. It's like a cloudy lemonade with some extra lemons. All right, next wine is orange wine, Calcareous. Easy as that. You go into any shop that sells natural wines, they're probably going to have some of this. So Valentina Pasolacqua, she's down in the hill bit of Italy in Puglia. Normally the wines from down there are really fruity and big but this is a little bit lighter and fresher. So when you get into a supermarket, you're not going to see many orange wines. But in the natural wine scene, there's lots of them and it's where you get the skins and the juice mingling together and that takes some of the structure from the skins, the tannins and it gives the wine a bigger mouthfeel. So it's almost like drinking a red wine but it's made out of white grapes, which is really interesting. But this is soft, it's not in your face, it's not rough. You can get some orange wines that are proper rough as the badgers are. So it's a really great one to get started with orange wines because it's smooth, it's easy going. It's got this nice boiled sweet character. It's a bit like cola. It's also low in alcohol. So 10, 11, 12% wines. None of them wines are going to give you a massive headache the next day. This is stuff that you can smash. You can get on the session with these. Yeah, you can get on the session for longer because they're lower in alcohol. You can smash them. The fact that they're all low in sulfites is not going to affect your hangover. You're still going to get a really bad hangover. For many people buying natural wine, it's important to know that the buying was made by workers who were paid fairly and weren't exploited. If there's ever a slight hint that someone's workers are being exploited or not being paid fairly, then the ---- hits the fan. And with Valentina's, she had some accusations about that sort of stuff. So Valentina's company was audited a couple of times and they found that the workers were being treated fairly and it was all all right. So it's always good to be conscious of where your wine's from and whether it's been made in a sustainable way. Well, I can't in the ******* steak restaurant. I like me full-bodied fruity Malbecs and that, you know. All right, next up is a winemaker called Judy B. She is from Austria. What I love about Judy B's wines is they're so juicy, but they're always very dense and concentrated. If you're a fan of the odd Malbec, you're going to love this. It's got that nice pink tinge around the rim of the glass. You can see that pinkiness there. So it's made out of Zweigeld and Saint Laurent. And if you like those deep, dark berry flavours of Malbec and you like the smoothness of it, you're going to love this. And to me, this one has a little bit of like a marmite-y sort of smell to it as well. There's like an earthiness underneath all of them dark berries. It's so smashable. 12% alcohol, you can smash a whole bottle of that. Cool label. And I would probably serve it just with a little bit of a chill as well. You know how they tell you not to chill your reds? I would just give it a little bit of a chill. 10 minutes in the fridge and then off you go. I could smash two bottles of that. It's lush. So my last wine is Gran Curdo. You'll see this on every single wine list in East London. The one with a pig on the label. But it doesn't smell a pig ----. It is really clean. It's from the Rioja region. A lot of the Riojas that you get, it's all about the oaky, like the woody flavours. But with this one, it's all about them dark cherry flavours. A little bit of spice. It's all juicy fruit. So this isn't a really complex wine. It's quite simple actually. It's about 11 quid a bottle. But it's the straightforward juicy fruit flavours. It's got that little bit of spice. It's just really nice to drink. All I can think of when I drink this wine is having a plate of charcuterie or something. It's mint. So hopefully you've got enough info there to get started with natural wines. We're just trying to get away from these big, heavily industrialised wines. A lot of the time with these big commercial wineries and supermarket wines and stuff, it's all a bit homogenised, a bit sterile. It's all of the good stuff's been taken away in the pursuit of a perfectly clear, sterile, alcoholic liquid. And it's not very rock and roll. So the next time you're walking down them supermarket aisles and you see that bottle of Pinot Grigio, just have a think to yourself. Who made that? How many bottles did they make? Wouldn't you rather taste the people, the places, the stories in the glass? You know what I mean? You're watching the Geordie Wine Guide. Bloody hell, have I had six? This afternoon has turned out to be a bit more boozy than I expected. That lockdown life. Remind me never to wear a white shirt when I'm doing a wine video. Daft.