It’s Time To Talk About Wine…Naturally!

Wine has been an accompaniment for food for thousands of years and as with everything at the restaurant Food, it is something we take pride in carefully considering. Not only do we look at choosing the wine with the best taste but also the wine that can benefit our bodies the most. It may seem like a foreign notion to consider wine “healthy” but there are a wealth of positives to consuming Natural wines. As with the term “Organic” for food, in the past, the word “Natural” wasn’t needed to define wine. All wine was Natural by virtue. However with the demand for more wines of a given style, winemakers were forced to look at ways to make their product more profitable and consistent in taste and style from one bottle to the next. To achieve that, more techniques were developed to stabilise wine and slowly but surely more flavourings, additives, filtration and chemicals were added. 

Natural wine is wine that has been made without the use of chemicals and have little in the way of technological intervention. By definition all Natural wines are grown Organically or biodynamically. It isn’t just that the wine doesn’t contain chemicals that makes it interesting, beyond that, Natural Wine is ALIVE and contains a host of benefits for our systems and wellbeing. With an abundance natural yeasts, bacteria and colourful compounds, Natural wine feeds the good bacteria in your gut and produce some wonderful health benefits for you by enhancing your microbiome. Just some of the highly beneficial nutrients are 

Probiotic bacteria- this forms in wine as it ferments. A lot of commercial wines filter out all the bacteria to stabilise the wine where as natural wines keep them all in. Probiotics attach to the intestinal wall to protect it from pathogens such as E.Coli.

Polyphenols- the colour compounds in red wine contain the antioxidants that feed the good bacteria in your gut and reduce the harmful bacteria. Increasing these bacteria improves the production of positive hormones such as Serotonin which can reverse instances of depression and anxiety.

Resveratol- This is an antioxidant found in grape skins that makes mice leaner by balancing their gut.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae- This is a wild yeast that helps to increase the absorption of nutrients and minerals such as zinc, magnesium, calcium and iron.  

Flavanols and red wine aroma compounds- These protect brain cells from dying. Studies have shown that moderate red wine consumption wards off Alzheimers Disease in mice 

So, we can’t think of more reasons to pass the bottle and say “Cheers”!