What is raw in wine? It may seem like an odd thing to find in your glass, or in a tasting note. But raw is a tasting note you might just find in your glass. It’s also sometimes used to describe natural wines. So what does it actually mean, and is raw in wine a good thing? Wine Terms Explained unpacks some of the weird wine terms used to describe wine. There are some truly odd ones out there, and sometimes it can be hard to know what the tasting notes even mean. These guides break down the wine terms so that you can get back to enjoying wine!
What is raw in wine?
This is a bit of a weird wine term because it has multiple meanings. This can make it quite confusing to understand, but let’s unpack both.
The first use of raw in wine as a wine term is to describe a wine that is young and undeveloped. When a wine is too young, it may not have the balance between tannin, acidity and alcohol yet. As a result, the wine might taste overly tannic, alcoholic or acidic. The balance will be slightly off, and it simply needs more time. This is something you can often find when sampling red wine from the barrels.
The other time you might see raw used is when referring to natural wines. Raw in this context is more of a positive word used as a benefit of natural wines. You might see natural wines described as “low-intervention”, “naked” or “raw” instead of calling it natural. That’s because natural wines as a category are meant to be wine without anything added such as pesticides or herbicides, or any additives like finers in the winemaking process. They also usually rely on natural yeast for fermentation (learn more about natural wines here). Although natural wines are a broad category that isn’t fully defined, the term raw can be used as more of a marketing term i.e. the wine is raw as nothing has been added to it.
Is raw in wine a good thing?
So now you know what it means, is it a good thing? Well in the case of raw being a wine term, it isn’t necessarily a good thing. However, the wine being young and undeveloped is easily solved with time (unless it is already in the bottle). So for the most part, although it isn’t necessarily positive, usually it is a point-in-time thing.
In the case of natural wine however this term isn’t good or bad, it is simply a word to describe a category. As this is more of a marketing thing, it isn’t positive or negative. It is just whether or not you like natural wine. If it isn’t for you, maybe avoid it all together!