We hope you love it as much as we do!

*Found in our CAYUCOS location only! *

Little bit on natty lovin…

Remember that time I told you in my core values statement number eight was to "improve my environment over time"? Well, natural wine is one way I think I can make that actually happen. Natural wine (also loosely referred to as "wild wine", "low-intervention wine", "naked wine", "raw wine", "regenerative wine", "biodynamic wine"... the list goes on is a sustainable way to be drinking the good stuff!

These wines are as untouched as wine gets.

You take grapes, you put them in a barrel, and you let them do their own thing. How cool is that!? If you let them sit too long, yes, you may even get vinegar, which is not the worst thing in the world, just not what you want to be drinking on your Friday evening. Anyway, we don't want you or ourselves to drink any vinegar, so let's get back to the story. Normally, when you drink your first glass of natural wine, you may experience funky, bubbly, fun, and unique flavors that change over short periods of time (because they keep fermenting even if you don't drink the whole bottle). These scrumptious wines provide a drinking experience that is exactly that, an ode to experience and time with friends and family, or time with yourself!

Natural wines are unsulfered, uncolored and untouched! The wines we carry at the Hidden Kitchen are beyond organic. They are grapes that are not sprayed with pesticides or herbicides at all when they are growing - the viticulture practices are biodynamic, in that some wineries even work in tandem with the natural cycles of the moon, others are regenerative, which utilize their environment to help (wait for our permaculture series to learn more about this!

Natural winemakers handpick their grapes instead of relying on machines to harvest them. When it comes to turning those handpicked grapes into juice, natural winemakers rely on native yeast, the stuff that’s whizzing around in the air and will land on grapes if you put them in a vat for long enough, to set off natural fermentation. And unlike most conventional winemakers, they don’t use any additives (like fake oak flavor, sugar, acid, egg white, etc.) in the winemaking process.

Natural wine can often be described as “cloudy,” “funky,” and/or “barnyard-y,” ... many people assume that it’s always loudly and inherently weird (just like us!)

Wanna get weird together?

This stuff is super cool. If you ask us what it tastes like, we'll probably give you an experiential description, because each bottle of natural wine (even from the same batch) are unique personality (just like us!). We'll tell you that this one bottle in particular reminds us of that time we were listening to the California Honeydrops at the old picnic table outside while the nasturtiums danced around in full bloom and the sweet summer breeze tickled our noses while we snacked on homemade hummus and garden veggies and laughed in the comfort of family and loved ones.