Natural, Organic, Biodynamic: What's Actually in Your Wine

A bottle of Domaine de Montille Volnay and a bottle of L’Anglore Tavel sit next to each other on your table. One is certified biodynamic. The other calls itself natural. Both are made by producers who farm obsessively well. But the labels mean different things, and one of them means nothing—legally speaking.

Here’s what each term actually controls, what it ignores, and why it matters when you’re choosing a bottle.

Organic Wine: The Regulated Baseline

Organic wine has a legal definition in both the EU and the US, though the two differ. The EU version (since 2012) regulates both the vineyard and the cellar. No synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers in the field. In the cellar, lower maximum sulfite levels than conventional wine—100 mg/L for reds, 150 mg/L for whites—and a restricted list of additives and processes.

The US definition is stricter on one point: USDA organic wine cannot contain any added sulfites. This makes it nearly impossible for most serious producers to qualify, which is why you rarely see USDA organic on imports. Most French organic wines carry the EU certification (look for the Euro-leaf logo) or the AB mark.

Domaine Fourrier in Gevrey-Chambertin farms organically. Domaine Labet in the Jura holds organic certification and has moved into biodynamic practice. The certification tells you something real about what happened in the vineyard. It tells you less about winemaking philosophy.

Biodynamic Wine: Organic Plus a Cosmology

Biodynamic farming includes everything organic requires, then adds a framework developed by Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s. The vineyard is treated as a self-sustaining organism. Preparations made from herbs, minerals, and animal materials—stuffed cow horns, fermented yarrow flowers—are applied according to lunar and astronomical calendars.

The two main certifying bodies are Demeter and Biodyvin. Demeter certification covers both vineyard and cellar, with sulfite limits lower than EU organic (70 mg/L for reds, 90 mg/L for dry whites). Biodyvin certifies vineyard practices only.

Domaine de Montille holds Demeter certification across their Burgundy holdings. You can taste the seriousness of it—the Volnays have a clarity of fruit that’s hard to fake. Whether the cow horns are doing the work or the obsessive attention that biodynamic farming demands is a question the wines don’t answer.

Natural Wine: Real Practice, No Legal Definition

This is where things get complicated. “Natural wine” has no official certification in most of the world. France introduced the Vin Méthode Nature label in 2020, which requires organic certification, native yeast fermentation, no additives, and either zero added sulfites or under 30 mg/L (with disclosure on the label). It’s voluntary, and many natural wine producers don’t bother with it.

The general understanding among producers and buyers: natural wine means organic or biodynamic farming, hand-harvesting, native yeast, minimal or no sulfite additions, and no fining, filtering, or technological manipulation. But because there’s no enforced standard, the term stretches. A producer adding 20 mg/L of SO2 at bottling? Most people would still call that natural. A producer using commercial yeast but farming organically? Grayer territory.

L’Anglore in the southern Rhône makes wines with essentially nothing added. Eric Pfifferling farms old-vine Grenache and Counoise, ferments with native yeast, and bottles without sulfur. Tony Bornard in the Jura works the same way. Philippe Pacalet in Burgundy uses whole-cluster fermentation and minimal intervention. Nicolas Jacob, also in the Jura, pushes further into oxidative and skin-contact territory. These wines taste radically different from each other, and all of them get called natural.

What Each Label Actually Regulates

So Which One Should You Care About?

Certification tells you about minimums. It doesn’t tell you about talent, or terroir, or whether the wine is any good. A certified organic wine from a large cooperative and an uncertified natural wine from a two-hectare domaine in Arbois occupy different universes, even if the small producer technically farms to higher standards.

The producers Paul sources for Voila—L’Anglore, Labet, Pacalet, Bornard, Jacob, Fourrier, de Montille—all farm with serious intent. Some certify. Some don’t. The constant is that they reject the industrial additives (there are over 60 legally permitted in conventional winemaking, including mega-purple, powdered tannin, and commercial enzymes) that make cheap wine taste consistent and strip expensive wine of its identity.

When you’re reading a label, certification is useful shorthand. When you’re drinking, the wine itself is the only evidence that matters.