These three terms get used interchangeably all the time, and they should not be.
I hear it constantly at MaMeMi. Someone points at a bottle on the list and says, “Oh, is that one of those orange natural biodynamic wines?” And Danilo has to gently explain that those are three completely different things that sometimes overlap.
So let me clear this up properly, because once you understand the difference, wine lists become much easier to navigate.
The Short Version
Natural wine is about how the wine is made. Minimal intervention.
Biodynamic wine is about how the grapes are farmed. A specific holistic method.
Orange wine is about the winemaking technique. White grapes fermented on their skins.
A wine can be all three. It can be one and not the others. They are separate categories that describe different things.
Now let me explain each one properly.
Natural Wine: A Philosophy of Non-Intervention
Natural wine has no legal definition, which makes it the most slippery of the three terms. But there is a broad consensus in the wine world about what it means.
Natural wine is made with as little intervention as possible, both in the vineyard and in the cellar.
In the vineyard, that means farming without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Usually organic, often biodynamic, sometimes just done carefully by a small producer who cannot afford certification.
In the cellar, it means fermenting with the wild yeasts that live naturally on the grape skins rather than adding commercial yeast. It means avoiding additives that adjust acidity, colour, or texture. It means minimal or no filtration. And it means little or no added sulfites, which are the preservatives most wine relies on.
What this means for you: Natural wine tends to taste more alive, more variable, and more specific to its place. It can also be less predictable. Some bottles are extraordinary. Some are challenging. The producer matters enormously.
Biodynamic Wine: Farming as a Living System
Biodynamic farming is a specific agricultural method developed by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s.
The core idea is that a farm should be treated as a single self sustaining living organism. Not a factory that processes inputs into outputs, but an ecosystem where soil, plants, animals, and people all support each other.
In practice, biodynamic winemakers use natural preparations made from herbs, minerals, and composted material to nourish the soil. They avoid all synthetic chemicals. They encourage biodiversity by planting cover crops and keeping animals. And they schedule vineyard work according to the lunar calendar, based on the idea that the moon influences sap flow in plants the way it influences tides.
Unlike natural wine, biodynamic wine can be formally certified. The two main certifications are Demeter, which is the international gold standard, and Biodyvin, which is specific to European wine. Both require annual inspections and strict compliance.
What this means for you: Biodynamic is a farming standard, not a taste profile. A biodynamic wine can be made conventionally in the cellar with commercial yeast and added sulfites. Most are not, but it is possible. If you see Demeter or Biodyvin on a bottle, you know exactly how the grapes were grown.
Orange Wine: A Technique, Not a Philosophy
Orange wine is the most misunderstood of the three, and it is actually the simplest.
Orange wine is white wine made like red wine.
Here is how normal white wine is made. You press the grapes, separate the juice from the skins immediately, and ferment just the juice. This gives you a pale, fresh, clean wine with no tannin.
Here is how red wine is made. You crush the grapes and ferment the juice together with the skins for days or weeks. The skins give colour, tannin, and structure.
Orange wine takes white grapes and treats them like red. The juice ferments on the skins for anywhere from a few days to several months. The result is a wine that is amber or orange in colour, with real tannin, a savoury and sometimes nutty character, and a texture that is completely different from ordinary white wine.
Orange wine is not new. This is how wine was made for thousands of years in Georgia, and it never disappeared there. What is new is its revival in Italy, particularly in Friuli, where producers like Josko Gravner and Stanko Radikon began making skin contact whites in the 1990s and changed the wine world.
What this means for you: Orange wine has the freshness of white and the structure of red. It pairs with food that neither category handles well. And it is one of the most food friendly styles in existence.
The Overlap: Where They Meet
Here is why these terms get confused.
Most orange wine happens to be made by natural wine producers, because the technique appeals to people who like minimal intervention. Most natural wine producers farm organically or biodynamically, because chemical farming is incompatible with the philosophy. And many biodynamic producers make natural wine, because if you go to the trouble of farming that carefully you usually want to interfere as little as possible in the cellar.
So the three categories overlap heavily in practice. But they are still describing different things.
A wine can be:
- Biodynamic but not natural (careful farming, conventional cellar work)
- Natural but not biodynamic (minimal intervention, organic but not biodynamic farming)
- Orange but not natural (skin contact white made with commercial yeast and additives)
- All three at once (which describes a lot of the wine on our list at MaMeMi)
How to Use This When You Order
Next time you are looking at a wine list, here is how to think about it.
- If you want something clean, expressive, and specific to its place, ask for natural wine and trust the sommelier to steer you away from anything too funky.
- If you care about farming practices and environmental impact, look for biodynamic certification. Demeter or Biodyvin on the label tells you exactly what you are supporting.
- If you want a genuinely different drinking experience, ask for orange wine. It will change how you think about what white wine can be.
- If you are not sure, just tell the sommelier what you are eating and what you usually enjoy. That is a much more useful conversation than trying to navigate categories.
At MaMeMi, our natural wine list has over 1000 natural Italian wines and Danilo knows every single one. He has met the producers. He has walked the vineyards. When you tell him what you like, he is not guessing.
Come find us at Mysundegade 28 in Vesterbro. Weekend lunch every Saturday and Sunday from 12:00. Book your table here.
Francesco
