It doesn't and shouldn't taste like vinegar. Same here regarding family wine production. Note families tend to share their wine among themselves, so there is some comparison. You can taste the difference if there is some additive or it is industry produced. It is just different.

Personally, I find the term "natural wine" kind of laughable (I hope) and a result of marketing. Techniques used in the industry are towards making wine more average and consistent over the years. Not sifting your juices and checking over the yeast, just means you won't know if your wine sucks till it's ready. Hence a significant portion of years will just taste bad, with a few of them being acceptable. You still need to intervene to get true gems (controlled environment etc), as the article implies. There is still a lot of oversight going on.

>> According to this view, natural wine is a cult intent on >> rolling back progress in favour of wine best suited to >> the tastes of Roman peasants. I think this hostile sentiment is unwarranted. Wine in general has gotten much better over the years (consistency and taste) as we know much more about the process. I can see why French winemakers want consistency, but I would argue they could label possibly inconsistent wines with a new term than branding them as "garbage".