Acidity and Power: The Politics of Natural Wine in Nineteenth-Century Germany

Abstract

This article examines the origins of the natural-wine movement in Germany—the first of its kind in Europe—by exploring the crucial technological and social developments which prompted the use of derided “artificial” winemaking techniques. The forgotten social reformer Ludwig Gall, once known to as the “savoir of the small vintner,” helped to relieve the unreliable dependency of winegrowers on nature by perfecting a deacidification technique which allowed for pleasant wines in any vintage. While Gall's technique became an important part of the road out of impoverishment for many winegrowers in the Mosel River Valley, it had the additional effect of challenging the static nature of the wine trade and the monopolies and economic efficiencies of large landowners. By outlining the initial uses of Gall's technique and the opposition to it, this article reveals the formative debates in the ongoing controversy over the definition of natural wine. In turn, the concepts of “artificial” and “natural” are shown to be grounded more in the social and political spheres of the nineteenth-century German wine trade and less in matters of consumer choice or concerns over the environment.