Man from Cambridge Road talking about his wines to a crowdI like any event cen­tered around wine, so I’m real­ly excit­ed about Bud­burst, com­ing up on Novem­ber 11 — the country’s only nat­ur­al wine fes­ti­val.

Nat­ur­al wines, you say? What exact­ly does that mean? Well let’s cut’n paste from the press release

His­tor­i­cal­ly, the term nat­ur­al wine is with­out a sin­gle def­i­n­i­tion. For the Bud­burst nat­ur­al wine fes­ti­val we con­sol­i­dat­ed a series of gen­er­al­ly held  cri­te­ria includ­ing hand har­vest­ing of organ­i­cal­ly or bio­dy­nam­i­cal­ly grown grapes and lim­it­ed inter­ven­tions in the win­ery — wild fer­men­ta­tion, min­i­mal use of new oak, restric­tions on the per­mit­ted total sul­fur and strict guide­lines on addi­tions, fin­ing and fil­tra­tion are all includ­ed in our fes­ti­val stan­dards. Leav­ing as much as pos­si­ble to nature is the key.

One ques­tion a lot of nat­ur­al wine pro­duc­ers get asked (nor­mal­ly by me, three glass­es in) is if not using sul­phur means no hang­over. It does not mean no hang­over. Don’t ask that ques­tion. But DO ask oth­er ques­tions! The event is all about learn­ing. From the press release again:
The pro­duc­ers who come along and the wines they show all sub­scribe to five main prin­ci­ples:

  • Wine starts in the vine­yard: The fes­ti­val organ­is­ers believe that nat­ur­al wine can­not be made from  con­ven­tion­al­ly farmed fruit so requires all par­tic­i­pat­ing pro­duc­ers to ver­i­fy that they grow their grapes organ­i­cal­ly or bio­dy­nam­i­cal­ly

  • Let the time and place shine through: In the win­ery, they ask for min­i­mal inter­ven­tion, let­ting the qual­i­ty of the fruit, site and sea­son speak for them­selves. Min­i­mal inter­ven­tion cov­ers all aspects of the wine­mak­ing process so these wines are all veg­an, for exam­ple.

  • Nat­u­ral­ly deli­cious: We love deli­cious, well-made wines. Weird for weird’s sake is not our bag, the wine also has to be good. Nat­ur­al is the phi­los­o­phy, qual­i­ty is the aim.

  • Always learn­ing, always curi­ous: Edu­ca­tion is at the heart of every­thing they do, the fes­ti­val is designed to pique your curios­i­ty

  • It’s all for the love of wine: Bud­burst is a not-for-prof­it fes­ti­val run by a pas­sion­ate group of vol­un­teers

What this might mean in your glass is that things might be tang­i­er than you’re used to. They may be a lit­tle cloudy. Your wines might taste even a lit­tle like ciders. There’ll def­i­nite­ly be orange wine — no, that’s not wine made from oranges. Don’t wor­ry - the pro­gramme includes book­able mas­ter class­es so you can learn all about it.

The great thing about Bud­burst is that all tastes are includ­ed in your $50 entry fee. This means you can try all kinds of things and get some new favourites. Egmont Street Eatery is doing the cater­ing, but I strong­ly advise mak­ing sure you have a sol­id meal before­hand, and don’t be afraid to tip out wines you don’t like. I mean, don’t be a jerk about it, but wine mak­ers know that not every­thing is to every­one’s tastes, and that you might want to be sen­si­ble with your tast­ings.

Here’s their video from 2016 so you can get a feel for things.

https://youtu.be/M‑xJBFS-hLY

Now remem­ber how I said we have a give­away? I asked Bud­burst if we could give away some tick­ets, and they very kind­ly gave me a dou­ble pass worth $100 to give away. We’ll keep it pret­ty sim­ple — all you got­ta do is be over 18, of course, and leave us a com­ment say­ing what your favourite wine is, and why. Get your com­ment in by 5pm Wednes­day Sep­tem­ber 26.