When you pour a glass of wine and take that first sip, you’re tasting more than just grapes. You’re tasting the story of a place: the soil, the air, and even the tiniest organisms that call it home. In the world of natural wine, this story is told most authentically through spontaneous fermentation — a process that celebrates the wild yeast that lives on grapes and in cellars.

Wine is often boxed into rigid categories: varietals, regions, scores, and awards. While these benchmarks can guide us, they rarely tell the full story. The way we experience wine—its energy, its essence, its connection to us—is something profoundly personal.

Natural wine. The term itself feels alive, doesn’t it? It evens feels good just saying it, conjuring up images of sun-soaked vineyards, untouched grapes, and the raw, unfiltered magic of nature. But what does "natural wine" actually mean? And why is it dividing the wine world so fiercely?

German born Hungarian natural wine producer, Horst Hummel, wins landmark court decision against a local district’s justification for the rejection of natural wines based on the existing quality wine test.

What we think we are drinking, for the most part, is determined and characterised by a system. A system based on a historical set of assumptions and agreements of what varietal wine should taste like, and not what it should naturally be.

In the summer of 2023, the Natural Wine Society spent a few days in Hungary with Horst Hummel. This short film captures his reflections and words of wisdom on the nature of things, and the majesty of the truth in wine.

Horst Hummel is a sage within the wine world, a journeyman of his own making and someone who has condensed the rhetoric around wine into a simple relationship with nature.

The fourteen part short film series produced by Terroir Squad, weaves cinematic and visually-rich storytelling, with the deeply personal voices of the unique individuals nurturing nature in a bottle.