Natural. Raw. Conventional. Organic. Biodynamic. The wine category has spawned more labels than the underwear aisle at Winners, and none of them have a single agreed-upon definition. Here's a plain-English breakdown of what each term actually means, what's allowed in each, and where we sit.
~90% of the wine you drink. Cultivated yeast, additives allowed, 80–150 mg/L sulfites, filtered.
Native yeast, minimal additives, 0–40 mg/L sulfites, mostly unfiltered, 100% vegan.
Native yeast only, zero additives, ZERO sulfites, unfiltered. High risk, high reward.
The problem with wine categories
Wine has one of the least regulated labeling systems in the food and beverage world.
"Organic" is regulated — you either have the certification or you don't. But "natural," "raw," "low-intervention," "clean," "authentic," "artisanal"? Any producer can put those on a label. There's no legal definition of any of them.
That doesn't mean the words are meaningless. Within the natural wine community, there is a rough consensus on what "natural" means. Same for raw wine. But it's a social consensus, not a legal one. Different producers will draw the lines in slightly different places.
Here's how we draw them.
Conventional Wine
The default. About 90% of the wine you drink.
How it's made:
- Grapes farmed with whatever tools are legal — synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides. This is fine, in a "cars have brakes" sense.
- After harvest, the winemaker takes over. Cultivated yeast is added for reliable, predictable fermentation.
- Additives are permitted — colour agents, acidity adjusters, tannin, oak chips (in cheaper wines), Mega Purple (a colour concentrate you'd be shocked to learn about).
- Sulfites at higher levels — typically 80–150 mg/L in the finished wine. Sulfur stabilizes the wine and prevents oxidation.
- Filtered before bottling — clear, bright, sediment-free.
What it tastes like: Consistent. Reliable. Vintage-to-vintage variation is smoothed out. The wine tastes the way the winery decided it should taste, not the way that year's fruit came in.
Nothing wrong with this. Conventional wine is what feeds the industry. Every bottle you've had at a restaurant costing less than $25 is almost certainly conventional. And there are gorgeous conventional wines — great winemakers using conventional methods still make great wine.
Raw Wine
The strictest end of the spectrum.
How it's made:
- Organically or biodynamically farmed (usually certified).
- Zero cultivated yeast. Native yeast on the skins does the fermenting, no exceptions.
- Zero additives. No colour, no acid, no tannin, no anything. If the vintage gives you a wine that's out of balance, that's just what the vintage gives you.
- Zero added sulfur. Not "low" — zero. Some raw wine producers accept that this means the wine is fragile and needs to be drunk fresh.
- Unfiltered — sediment is normal.
What it tastes like: Alive, funky, vintage-specific. Some raw wines are transcendent. Some raw wines are cider-vinegar-turned-wrong. The variance is high because the safety net is zero.
Who makes it: A small but growing subset of natural winemakers who take the philosophy to its logical endpoint. In Ontario, some Trail Estate wines land here; in Europe, producers like Frank Cornelissen (Sicily) and Jean-Yves Péron (Savoie) are prominent raw-wine names.
Raw wine is the wine equivalent of a raw milk cheese: uncompromising, more interesting when it works, riskier when it doesn't.
Natural Wine (where we sit)
The middle ground. The one with no legal definition.
How it's made:
- Grapes farmed with minimal-intervention practices — no synthetic herbicides or pesticides on the fruit we source. Some of our fruit is certified organic; some isn't, because we source from family farms across PEC and Niagara and not all our growers hold certification.
- Native yeast fermentation. No cultivated commercial strains.
- Minimal additives. When we do add something (rarely — mostly acidity correction in a difficult vintage), any additive is certified organic. No corrections for flavour, colour, or tannin.
- Low or zero added sulfur. Pet-nats are made with zero. Still wines get a small dose at bottling (typically 0–40 mg/L) for stability.
- 100% vegan. No animal-derived fining agents. Ever.
- Usually unfiltered.
What it tastes like: More vintage-specific than conventional, more predictable than raw. Bright, alive, textured. Real fruit character. Some funk in the pet-nats and orange wines; almost none in the still whites and reds.
★ Our position
We call it pragmatic natural winemaking. Do as little as possible so the fruit can express itself — but the wine has to taste good. We won't let ideology ruin a wine, and we won't ship a bottle we wouldn't drink ourselves.
Where do organic and biodynamic fit in?
Organic is a farming certification, not a winemaking category. A wine can be certified organic (in the vineyard) and still be made using conventional additives in the cellar. It's a floor for what NOT to spray, not a ceiling on what's allowed post-harvest.
Biodynamic is a stricter farming philosophy — treats the vineyard as a whole ecosystem, follows a lunar calendar, uses specific preparations. Biodynamic wines are also generally organic. Ontario producers like Southbrook and Frogpond are certified biodynamic. Great wines, worth seeking out.
Both categories overlap with natural wine but aren't identical to it.
The comparison, in a table
| Practice | Conventional | Raw | Natural (Traynor) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fermentation | Cultivated yeast | Native only | Native only |
| Additives | Permitted | None ever | Rare, organic-certified only |
| Sulfites | 80–150 mg/L | 0 mg/L | 0 (pet-nats) to 40 mg/L |
| Filtration | Yes | No | Usually no |
| Farming | Synthetics OK | Chemical-free | Chemical-free |
| Vegan by default | No | Usually | Always |
Why we chose the middle
We could have gone raw. Native yeast, no additives, zero sulfite — we know how to do it, and every once in a while we make a batch that would qualify.
We chose not to make raw wine our house style because our goal is affordable, everyday drinking. Raw wines are fragile — they don't ship as well, they don't shelf-age as well, and they can flip on you between the winery and your dinner table. A small sulfite dose at bottling costs us nothing in character and gives our customers a wine that's still the wine we made when they open it three months later.
We also source fruit from family growers who don't all farm to certified-organic standards. Requiring certification from our growers would either drive our prices up (bad for our customers) or force us to walk away from farmers we've worked with for years (bad for our fruit). The pragmatic answer: work with the growers we trust, use minimal intervention in the cellar, and make wines that people can afford to drink every week.
Where to start with our natural wines
Not our call what you drink — but if you want to try a Traynor natural wine, here's where to enter.
Frequently asked
Is natural wine better for you?
"Better" depends on what you're optimizing for. Natural wines generally have less added sulfite than conventional, which matters if you're sulfite-sensitive. They have no cultivated yeast strains or artificial additives. They still contain alcohol, which is not health food. If you're drinking wine to feel good about your health, drink less of it — that beats any category choice.
Do natural wines give you a worse hangover?
The internet is split on this and there's no rigorous study. Some people report fewer hangovers on natural wines (usually credited to lower sulfites and no additives). Others report the same. Your mileage may vary.
Are natural wines gluten-free?
All Traynor wines are gluten-free. Most wines in general are gluten-free — the exception is when a wine has been fined with a wheat-derived agent (rare, but check the producer if you have a strict allergy).
Why is natural wine sometimes cloudy?
Because it's unfiltered. Filtration removes dead yeast cells and grape solids, which also strips out some texture and aromatic compounds. Natural winemakers usually leave the wine unfiltered so nothing is stripped. Some cloudiness or sediment is normal — pour gently, stop before the last splash.
Is natural wine always vegan?
No — but it usually is. Natural wines rarely use animal-derived fining agents (like isinglass, casein, or egg whites). All Traynor wines are 100% vegan by policy.
How do I know if a wine is natural?
There's no legal certification. Trust the producer's stated practices. Look for language like "native yeast," "no additives," "low sulfite," or "minimal intervention." Ask questions if you're at a tasting.
★ Try the pragmatic middle ★
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