Wine can make itself: We humans presumably didn’t invent it so much as discover it in the form of spontaneously fermented wild grapes. That simple fact naturally informs the non-interventionist philosophy of the Slow Wine movement as an offshoot of Slow Food, the international organization founded in Italy in 1986 to preserve and promote traditional foodways. Eschewing mechanization and manipulation as much as possible, Slow Wine is all about letting the grape do its thing from the vine to the bottle.
But what does that mean, exactly—how is that basic precept demonstrated in the vineyard, the winery, and the glass alike? To find out, I attended a seminar taught by Master of Wine Ashley Hausman at the second annual Slow Food Nations summit, held July 13–15 in Denver.
