Why Winc is Acquiring Natural Merchants
Winc, Inc. the digitally native wine retailer, is purchasing Natural Merchants, a purveyor of natural, organic, and biodynamic wines.
Natural Merchants was founded in 2004 by husband-and-wife Edward Field and Pilar Meroño. In announcing the deal, Winc said the acquisition reinforces its dedication to sustainability and organics and enhances the company’s ability to offer so-called natural wines.
“Natural Merchants is a pioneer and thought leader in the natural and organic wine space,” Winc VP of Corporate Development and Innovation Alex Goodwin told
Wine Business Monthly. “They have developed a reputation for excellence in that space, and an extensive set of relationships with key suppliers around the world. That s really the crux of the acquisition.
Guido Cavallini via Getty Images
From wine clubs to store shelves to Instagram feeds, “clean wine” is popping up all over the place these days, with marketing claims promoting health consciousness, sustainability, transparency in ingredients and more. You may even have a bottle of it in your home right now.
The increasing presence of clean wine from brands like Avaline, Good Clean Wine, FitVine, Scout & Cellar and Wonderful Wine Company have many wondering: What is clean wine? Does it mean other wine is “dirty”? And should I be drinking clean wine?
It turns out that the answer is pretty complex. Here’s what you need to know.
Can a wine ever be called clean ?
Credit: Haarala Hamilton
A bottle of wine that’s better for your health, your hangover and the planet. It may sound too good to be true – but that’s exactly what a new crop of “clean” wine brands in the US is promising. Offered up as a healthier, purer alternative to traditional winemaking, clean wine is usually vegan, made from organic grapes and free from pesticides, preservatives, colours, added sulphites and sugars – or, as clean wine brand Scout & Cellar likes to put it, “yucky stuff”.
Cameron Diaz and fashion entrepreneur Katherine Power, who launched their clean wine brand Avaline in 2020, said they felt “real anger” at the lack of transparency in the traditional winemaking process. “All these additives… we had no idea,” they said. Other such brands include Good Clean Wine, which offers “wine that pairs with a healthy lifestyle,” and the Wonderful Wine Company, which claims to make “clean wine for better