WHAT IS REAL WINE?

‘Real wine’ is a term embracing wines that are made organically, biodynamically and naturally. By no means precise nor prescriptive it serves chiefly to highlight growers who work with minimal mediation, ideally to obtain the purest articulation of terroir, fruit and vintage.

All great wine begins in the vineyard and is ultimately the result of sensitive farming. It is important that growers farm sustainably and with a sense of environmental responsibility, ensuring the natural balance and health of the vineyard. The juice from the resultant grapes should then ideally, be guided to the bottle with the fewest manipulations in order to create a vital and singular – rather than an homogenous – product. This sympathetic interpretation and transformation of nature’s gifts lies at the heart of what makes a wine “real.”

THE REAL WINE FAIR

The Real Wine Fair is a celebration of the labour, craft and skill of small independent vine growers.

There are four simple objectives:

1. To showcase some of the world’s most talented artisan vignerons under one roof
2. To illustrate the exciting diversity and personality of naturally-made wines
3. To allow growers and customers to exchange information and ideas
4. To have fun!

Featuring over 180 organic/biodynamic and natural winemakers from around the world, a roster of superb guest speakers for the seminars and masterclasses, a busy on-site wine shop, and bustling street food stalls dispensing tasty morsels, the 2024 Real Wine Fair welcomed record numbers of trade and consumer visitors (including guests from the US, Scandinavia and Australia), and was, without doubt, our most successful and critically-acclaimed event to date.