NATURAL WINE: A

DEVELOPING
COMMUNITY
a study into norms and marketing within
Sweden

Daniel Svahn & Zachary Naipaul

Examensarbete: 15 hp, Vt 2020

Institutionen för kost- & måltidsvetenskap / Department of Food, Nutrition and
Culinary Sciences
Handledare: Veronica Abnersson
Examinator: Petra Rydén
Abstract

Natural wine means wine that is created with minimal human intervention, local natural
wine is to be used and no additives are allowed to be added to the wine except a small
amount of sulphites. Natural wine is growing as a concept and as a community. In Sweden
especially it is largely regarded as something new. The purpose of this study was to
identify the norms defining this developing community and analyze how the people who
work with the product every day market and present it as a product for consumption. In
order to answer these questions four interviews were conducted with people who work
with natural wine on a daily basis. Specifically, two sommeliers at well known natural
wine focused restaurants in Stockholm, Sweden and two importers of natural wine who
are active across Sweden. This study shows that natural wine has grown a lot in the last 10
years in Sweden and that a community has been built here surrounding it. It also showed
that norms such as honesty and openness are important within the community. Storytelling
also seems to be a big part in the selling of the product and as a way to introduce new
people to natural wine as a concept. Sustainability is also a large part of the debate that is
taking place currently surrounding natural wine. Finally, we discovered that natural wine
might struggle in the future due to the lack of a clear legal definition for the product.
While all four of the individuals interviewed largely agreed with each other on the
definition of natural wine the lack of a definition can harm growth going forward.

Keywords: Natural Wine, Sustainability, Openness, Transparency, Honesty, Market,

Culture, Storytelling.
Sammanfattning

Naturvin handlar om att framställa vin genom en så naturlig process som möjligt med
minimala korrigeringar. Man ska använda sig av naturligt lokalt jäst och vinet ska
manipuleras så lite som möjligt av människan som tillverkar det. Naturvin växer som ett
koncept och som ett samfund, särskilt i Sverige betraktas det till en stor del som något
nytt. Syftet med denna studie var att identifiera normerna som definierar samfundet och
analysera hur de människor som arbetar med naturvin varje dag marknadsför och
presenterar det som en produkt för konsumtion. För att besvara dessa frågor genomfördes
fyra intervjuer med människor som arbetar med naturvin dagligen; två sommeliers på
välkända restauranger i Stockholm som primärt arbetar med naturvin som dryck samt två
importörer av naturvin som är verksamma över hela Sverige. Denna studie visade att
naturligt vin har vuxit mycket under de senaste tio åren i Sverige och att ett samfund har
byggts runt det. Det visade också att normer som ärlighet och öppenhet är viktiga i det
samfund som byggts upp runt naturvin. Storytelling verkar också vara en stor del i
försäljningen av produkten och som ett sätt att introducera nya människor till naturligt vin
som ett koncept. Hållbarhet är också en stor del av debatten som för närvarande äger rum
kring naturligt vin. Slutligen upptäckte vi att naturligt vin kan ha det svårt i framtiden på
grund av bristen på tydlig juridisk definition av produkten. Medans alla de fyra personerna
som intervjuades i stort sett var överens med varandra om definitionen av naturligt vin,
kan bristen på en definitiv definition skada tillväxten framöver.
Table of Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1
2. Purpose ......................................................................................................................... 1
3. Questions ...................................................................................................................... 1
4. Background ................................................................................................................... 2
4.1 Natural Wine Defined ................................................................................................. 2
4.2 Sustainability .............................................................................................................. 2
4.3 Market and Marketing................................................................................................ 3
4.4 Culture ........................................................................................................................ 3
4.5 Consumer behaviour .................................................................................................. 4
5. Method ......................................................................................................................... 5
5.1 Choice of method ....................................................................................................... 5
5.2 Scientific Ethical Guidelines ........................................................................................ 5
5.3 Choice of Interviewees ............................................................................................... 6
5.4 Who are the informants ............................................................................................. 6
5.5 Conducting Interviews ................................................................................................ 7
5.6 Transcribing ................................................................................................................ 7
5.7 Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 8
6. Results ........................................................................................................................ 10
6.1 Norms ....................................................................................................................... 10
6.1.1 Consumer .......................................................................................................... 10
6.1.2 Knowledge ......................................................................................................... 11
6.1.3 Community ........................................................................................................ 11
6.2 Values ....................................................................................................................... 12
6.3 Concepts ................................................................................................................... 13
6.4 Covid-19 effect on Industry and Market. ................................................................. 14
7. Discussion ................................................................................................................... 15
7.1 Results discussion ..................................................................................................... 15
7.2 Methodology discussion ........................................................................................... 17
8. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 19
9. References .................................................................................................................. 20
10. Appendices ................................................................................................................. 23
Appendix 1: Interview Questions for Importers ............................................................ 23
Appendix 2: Interview Questions for Restaurants ......................................................... 24
 1. Introduction
This study will work towards highlighting the natural wine market in Sweden today. How
it has developed and how it might evolve in the future. We want to discuss the norms and
values held by this tight knit community.

The two authors of this paper both had their eyes opened to the world of natural wine on a
field study in Slovenia. This was perhaps not the first time that they experienced natural
wine, but it was the first time that they were introduced to the culture surrounding the
production and consumption of natural wine. According to Alice Feiring (2019) Natural
wine is a product created from a movement to resist the large-scale commercial wine
industry and the growth of this movement and industry is inevitable. In short order it’s a
wine that has been organically or biodynamically farmed using minimum human
intervention in order to make the wine according to M. Mellfors (personal communication,
24 april 2020). Very few scientific studies have been performed on the subject however
and that lack of available knowledge is in large part what motivated this study.

As of today, there is no comprehensive study on the Swedish market of natural wine. This
topic is important because natural wine is not only a trend within restaurants and suppliers
in Sweden but also a sustainability question on an international level with market growth
globally (Arthur, 2019).

In this study we will be exploring the market and community surrounding natural wine
through qualitative research in the form of interviews. These interviews were done by the
authors with two restaurant sommeliers and two importers of natural wine who operate on
the Swedish market.

2. Purpose
This study has a dual purpose. Firstly, we would like to analyze how importers and
restaurants work with natural wines as a relatively new product on the Swedish market.
While the second purpose is to ascertain how importers and restaurants view the natural
wine community developing within Sweden. We will limit ourselves through the usage of
two importers who operate within Sweden along with two restaurants in Sweden which
have actively chosen to offer natural wine as a portion of their concept. This study will
work to highlight the so far unexplored natural wine market in Sweden.

3. Questions
1. How do importers and restaurants which focus on natural wine describe their product
and its community? Which norms, values, and ideas are key in the community
surrounding natural wine?

2. How are the restaurants and importers telling their story and marketing their concept?
What are the established values and norms surrounding the marketing of natural wine?

3. How is natural wine presented to the restaurant's guests?

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 4. Background
4.1 Natural Wine Defined
What is natural wine? There are many categories for wine which range from white to red,
sweet to dry. Natural wine is a category of wines which can include other categories such
as organic or biodynamic. Robinson (2015, p. 494) defines nature wine as wine produced
in smaller quantities with hand-picked grapes which are grown sustainably, organically
and biodynamically, with preferably no additives and minimal sulphites. This is in-line
with a new definition of natural wine that has come about in 2020 which defines natural
wine as a wine that is produced with hand-picked grapes which are organically grown
(Robinson, 2020). These wines must use indigenous yeast, therein having no added yeasts
which cannot be found on the vineyard. Lastly these wines cannot have additives with the
exception of sulphites not exceeding 30mg/L and are minimally filtered. There are some
10 000 different grape varieties in the world that we know of (Grainger, & Tattersall 2016,
p. 6). All of these grapes taste and look different to some degree. Some of these grapes are
known to produce some of the finest wines known in the world. While others merely hold
a reputation to produce mediocre wines at best. Many farmers don’t always have a
decision as to which grape they grow in their vineyard, as there exist many laws especially
within the EU that make it legal or illegal to grow grapes in certain regions. According to
Grainger & Tattersall (2016, p 7) many producers use several grapes in each wine to
balance out the flavours from each grape and try to create the best product possible.

This new definition of natural wine has recently become a legal regulation within France
(Wilson, 2020). This allowing French producers to label their wines with “vin méthode
nature sans sulfites ajoutés” or “vin méthode nature avec moins de 30 mg/l de sulfites
ajoutés1” depending on whether sulphites have been added up to the designated limit or
not. However, France is currently the only country with this regulation which has been
brought about as the results of a union named “Syndicat de défense des vins naturels” or
“Union for defense of natural wine”. This new designation for French wines is also partly
due to other producers using the term natural wine to promote their products while not
fulfilling all the standard ideas of natural wine production (Robinson, 2020). Other
countries such as the United States have regulations for components of natural wine such
as certification for organic production or regulations for sales labeling such as “made with
organic grapes” (McEvoy, 2017). While the regulations imposed by the USDA (United
States Department of Agriculture) do involve components of what is defined as natural
wine, the regulations neither involve all aspects of natural wine production nor the usage
of the term in any way.

4.2 Sustainability
As the production of natural wines is organic, environmental sustainability is a major
factor and concern within the market. As shown by Rugani, Vázquez-Rowe, Benedetto &
Benetto (2013, p. 65), organic production of wine has approximately 70% of the CO eq as 2

conventional wine production. Where CO eq is the equivalent greenhouse gas emission in

2

CO . While this numerical value can be seen through industry comparisons, it is in the
2

operation of producers that show how portions of the industry are striving to improve the
sustainability of wine through their practices during production. For example, Zonin1821,
a wine producer in Italy, while not being considered a natural wine producer, does
produce organic wines along with having a strong focus on “green” practices during
production along with sustainability not only environmentally but also socially and

1
”Natural wine method with no added sulphites” or “Natural wine method with maximum 30mg/L
sulphites added”.

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financially (Zonin1821, 2019). Zonin1821 (2019) goes so far as to promote biodiversity
throughout their vineyard with a variety of flora and fauna.

While economic sustainability is a greater concern for these organic producers, it remains
a factor for natural producers as well since they are creating a product which is readily
available on a market. Since the production of natural wine is done in smaller quantities,
natural wine has a tendency to have a higher starting price than conventional wines
(Koffler, 2019). This can lead to harder sales or lower margins for the product within the
industry.

4.3 Market and Marketing

According to Arthur (2019), organic wine takes up a small percentage of the wine market
globally at 3.6%. While not specifically natural wine, natural being organic with other
restrictions would take up an even smaller percentage. From 2012 to 2016 the
consumption of organic wine doubled from 349 million bottles which shows the
expanding market and rate of growth for the type of product (Arthur, 2019). Due to this,
producer areas are slowly changing to organic production however this process is a three
year process with four vintages and it is expected that the organic offering will increase in
the years to come (Arthur, 2019).

This market growth raises the issue of the bandwagon effect which can be defined in
general as consumers who want a product for the reason of being part of a group (Long,
York & Fox, 2007). This can also be translated to the production side as a producer seeing
the market growth of a product and wanting their own cut of the market. This can lead to
products being falsely labeled as organic or natural without following the rules set in
place. This has been seen with natural wine because there has been no legal certification
for the type of product. For example in 2018 in Sweden a bottle called Maison Robert
Olivier was clearly labeled on the bottle and sales label as NaturVin and Vin Natur
respectively, however, this wine was produced using added yeast which goes against the
production method for natural wine (Nilsson, 2018).

Storytelling is an important tool for marketing wine especially in today's age with
hundreds of different producers on most wine lists. This is especially true for smaller
producers and producers of natural wine where the story is an integral part of how each
wine came to be since no manipulation has been performed (Rytkönen, Vigerland, &
Borg, 2019, p. 5). Alcohol is often very interwoven with countries' history according to
Yong-Sook & Woo-Jin (2015). These links can often be found in old legends, myths and
celebrations and traditions. Wine is no different since it has strong traditions in industry
norms. People expect wine to be synonymous with passion and tradition and thus
storytelling in integral to the marketing of any wine (Yong-Sook & Woo-Jin, 2015, p.
281-295).

4.4 Culture
Culture can be seen as a set of messages that a group of individuals share in common,
experiences, views, values, and way of thinking (Macdonald, 1991). This can translate
into the wine industry in several forms, from the consumer to the producer and as such
plays an important role with the production of natural wines. In this section we will delve
into the current discussion surrounding natural wine as a counterculture against
commercial marketing and greed. Mathieu Lapierre, a producer of natural wine, quoted his
father saying, “didn’t want to use techniques that diminished the gastronomic potential
and flavours of the wine” (Camuto, 2017). This can be interpreted as a wish to avoid

3
killing the natural flavours and potential in the wine and relates to the norm of not adding
or removing anything in the production process of natural wine.

In winemaking today, the use of pesticides and to not grow organic can in many ways be
considered a norm while natural or organic practices can be seen as odd or norm breaking
(Länn & Sjöstrand, 2019, p. 44). One of the main expectations around natural wine is that
it is organically farmed using no pesticides or other conventional means to combat weed
and disease (Siepmann, Nicholas, & Granvik, 2016, p. 3). Trends also point towards
people’s expectations being more and more leaning towards natural wine meaning a high-
quality product from small enthusiastic producers (Vibeke & Vibeke, 2019, p. 42).

Norms are described by Åkerlund (2011, p. 6) as unwritten rules in society. They make up
a sort of frame that people are expected to stay within. These norms make up the rules
around traits, values, and behaviours that people are expected to follow in order to be
accepted into society. (Åkerlund, 2011 p. 6). Different parts of society abide by different
norms and depending on the context of when and how these norms are broken it can have
different consequences (Martinsson & Reimers, 2014, p. 12-15). As biodynamic vineyards
are a common theme among natural wine producers, the ideals of anthroposophy play an
important role in the culture surrounding natural wine. Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy
includes three core ideas: a spiritual world is alongside the physical world, humans have
the potential to see or enter the spiritual world and lastly that individuals can consciously
enter into an objective spirit (Uhrmacher, 1995, p. 386-387). These have later translated
into biodynamic farming through a series of lectures on agriculture by Steiner in 1924
which developed the idea of an alternative agriculture which focused on ‘healing the
earth’ and farms being described as an ‘organism’ (Paull, 2011)

According to Goode & Harrop (2011, p. 141-142) The natural wine community is a
movement that has grown as a counterculture parallel to the growth of the commercial
wine industry. Many of the values in this movement are explained in the beginning of this
chapter. The natural wine movement do not hold to any written down rules or restrictions.
They aren’t organized with a strict definition of what exactly natural wine is. Goode &
Harrop (2011, p 141) claim however that there is a chief consensus within the natural wine
movement, and that is that all wine is to be made with as few manipulations as possible
and that nothing is to be added in the process. It is believed that the modern natural wine
movement was started by the French man Jules Chauvet a man famous in his own right
within all of the wine world natural or not natural for his science and his development of
the ISO glass which is used today in use at most wine tastings. He described early his
worries over the greed he saw in many other winemakers as they favoured high yields
above grape quality. He also claims to have studied yeast and found that the use of
indigenous yeast strands produced wines that were generally favoured by people in blind
taste tests when compared to wines not using indigenous yeast. He was also strongly
against using sulphur in wines regarding it as a poison. He was a strong advocate for
going back to the “old ways” (Goode, & Harrop, 2011, p. 144-145).

4.5 Consumer behaviour

The behaviours of consumers can vary a lot in a restaurant when it comes to wine.
According to Vigar-Ellis (2016, p. 6) their behaviour largely depends on two factors.
What the consumer knows (objective knowledge) and what the consumer thinks that they
know (subjective knowledge). The one that most of the time can negatively impact a
consumer's experience and behaviour here is the subjective knowledge. This is because it
is rare that a consumer enjoys being told something that might go against their current
world view or their opinion on a specific product. At the same time, it is the duty of any

4
staff to inform the consumer as correctly as possible. This subjective knowledge can thus
negatively affect a consumer's experience and behaviour (Vigar-Ellis, 2016 p. 7). While
not specifically natural wine, we can draw links between eco-labeled wines as natural
wines can be included within the eco-label. Delmas, Lessem, Hahn, Figge, Aragón-Correa
& Sharma (2017) found that people who are not members of an environmental
organization had a lower purchasing probability to eco-wines than conventional wines
after a specific price point. While on-the-other-hand, members of those types of
organizations had a higher purchasing probability in all cases tested. This behaviour can
also be denoted to how much information a consumer receives as shown in the same study
where the purchasing probability for eco-wine increases with information. However, the
study also shows that the reputation or brand of the wine product can significantly affect a
consumer (Delmas et al., 2017).

This idea of comparing eco-wine sales also leads into ethical consumerism or “green”
consumerism. As defined by Cooper-Martin and Holbrook (1993, p. 113), ethical
consumerism is purchasing products based on an individual's ethical concerns. This is
reflected primarily as a “green” consumer in the wine industry which is a consumer which
specifically reflects on the effects of a product on the natural environment both from a
manufacturing side and consumption side (Wagner, 1997). This idea creates a smaller
community within the wine industry along with the specific market for “green” or organic
products. This increasing trend can also be seen in the food sector where the global
organic market value is estimated to increase by 16% from 2016 to the end of 2020, while
Europe stands for 33% of this market (Chokhani, 2019). This goes to show that the market
demand for these products not only is reflected in food but beverages as well, including
wine.

5. Method
5.1 Choice of method
In this study qualitative methods were used due to the nature of the subject. Bryman
(2012, p. 341) describes qualitative research as a method where more weight is put on
words rather than the quantitative collection and analysis of numerical data. In order to
understand the world of natural wine people who live in that world on a daily basis and
have chosen to dedicate their lives to that part of the industry were needed for the
interviews (Kvale, S., Brinkmann, S., & Torhell, S. 2009 p. 114).

The study was performed in the form of interviews. Interviews are a good method for
collecting personal accounts and experiences from people. By structuring our interviews
with set questions but still allowing for some spontaneous conversations between
questions we lead our interviewees to discuss the specific questions that we were looking
to answer but could still keep them relaxed and conversational (Martin, B., & Hanington,
B. 2012 p. 102).

5.2 Scientific Ethical Guidelines

The ethics of performing research in Sweden mainly comes down to four pillars. The
requirement of consent, the requirement of confidentiality, the requirement of use and the
requirement of information (Bryman, 2012, p 131-132).

Each participant in the study has the right to be informed (Bryman, 2012, p. 131). Not
only about their part in the study and what is expected of them but also their right to

5
interrupt or cancel the interview at any time. Any information that might affect the
participants willingness the partake in the study must be disclosed.

The researchers have a duty to do their utmost to keep the interviewees confidentiality to
the greatest extent possible (Bryman, 2012, p 132). In this study however it felt important
that the readers know who the people behind the interviews are and to be open about who
the interviewees are and what kind of businesses they are a part of. Thus, all of the
interviewees were asked if they would be willing to have their names and identities be
public in this study. Fortunately, our interviewees all agreed to have their
identities publicized to the extent of their names, background, and place of work in this
study. However, all the information about them revealed outside of the interviews has
been kept securely by the authors of this study.

The requirement of consent is simply the right of a person to opt out of being interviewed
no matter the opinions of others. Each interviewee gave their consent before the interview
via email and agreed to conducting it. This goes hand in hand with the requirement of
information because an interviewee cannot give proper consent if they do not know what
they are agreeing too.

The requirement of use simply means that we the authors of this study only use the
material and information gathered during these interviews for this specific
study (Bryman, 2012, p 131).

5.3 Choice of Interviewees

We chose our interviewees using purposive sampling. This is according to Battaliga
(2008, p. 5-6) a method which involves looking for specific characteristics in your
interviewees in order to be able to have them possibly represent a larger population. We
decided to interview at least two people who were involved in the import of natural wine
in Sweden and two people who had the sommelier position in restaurants or bars that had
a large focus on natural wine. They have all worked with natural wine for several years
and the two sommeliers we interviewed at the two restaurants we chose both are very well
known and respected in the natural wine community.

5.4 Who are the informants

Our restaurant informants were Maximillian and Simon who were both sommeliers in
Stockholm. Maximillian was the head sommelier at a small wine bar owned by Niklas
Ekstedt which entirely focuses on natural wine named Tyge & Sessil. He started late as a
sommelier. Before being a sommelier Maximillian worked as a singer and an actor in
Stockholm. His wine interest started as something he enjoyed in his free time and with
time it grew to enough to validate a change of career. He spent some years at a winebar
called 19 glas in Stockholm before Niklas Ekstedt recruited him to his restaurant Ekstedt
and for the past three years he has been in charge of the wine bar Tyge & Sessil.

Simon was the head sommelier at Rutabaga at Grand Hotel in Stockholm, a vegetarian
restaurant which works organically and thus also focuses on natural wine on their wine list
although they also offer conventional wines from the cellars of Grand Hotel. He has
worked there for approximately nine years. Before this he was in London for three years
under a chef called Richard Corrigan. Before Rutabaga became what it is today, three
years ago it was a restaurant called Mathias Dahlgren with two-Michelin stars but they
decided to change to concept.

6
The importer informants were Mikael and Peter who both have a history within the
restaurant industry. However, they later turned more towards selling to restaurants Mikael
from Fruktstereo. Fruktstereo is a cider, pet nat and beer producer that also imports natural
wine. Mikael has a family history of running restaurants and is also involved with a
restaurant in Gotland called Furillen.

Peter is a sales representative for Kvalitetsviner in charge of sales in Northern Sweden.

Before working for Kvalitetsviner Peter worked in different restaurants as a restaurant
manager and as a waiter, and even before that he worked at Umeå University at the
Gastronomy Program as a teacher.

5.5 Conducting Interviews

The interviews were conducted on a digital conference program/application known as
“Zoom”. Zoom is a, “cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat,
and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, telephones, and room systems” (Zoom
Video Communications, 2020). Each interview lasted for an approximate duration of 40
minutes to one hour in a casual environment. This casual environment was set up with the
interviewees choosing their own location and availability. Three of the four interviewees
participated in the interview from home, while one participated from their office with their
business partner helping with some of his own personal input to help answer questions.

The question guide used was developed with the help of the supervisor to create a list of
questions which would better help to answer our research questions. These questions were
repeatedly changed and adjusted along with being further clarified after having conducted
the first interview so that subsequent interviews would flow better and have less
misunderstandings from the informant about a given question.

As stated earlier, the interviews were structured with set questions with the allowance of
spontaneous conversation. This is called a semi structured interview which is an interview
which uses a detailed guideline for the interview when there is significant knowledge in a
topic (Morse & Field, as cited by Mcintosh & Morse, 2015). Thus, allowing us to further
delve into specific areas of a conversation to gain a deeper understanding of the
interviewees answers while retaining the casual environment. Through this, some
spontaneous questions also arose through some interviews to retain a flowing conversation
while gathering extra information which could later be coded into appropriate categories.

These interviews were also recorded, to be later transcribed. During the recording of these
interviews, only minor notes were taken so as to not distract ourselves during the
interview and to continue ensure keeping the interview on the correct track (Bryman,
2012, p. 428)

5.6 Transcribing
After the interviews were conducted, each interview was transcribed into a written format.
A good reason to transcribe the interviews is that it allows us to discover themes that you
missed during the interview or when you simply listened to the recording (Bryman, 2012,
p. 430). It also makes it easier to analyse each answer and compare them to answers given
by the other interviewee’s because you do not need to alternate between listening to
multiple recordings. Instead after transcribing you do something called coding which is
described in the next section. It took approximately five hours per interview to transcribe
it and format it correctly. The method used for transcribing was a simple, a simple audio
playback program called VLC which allows jumping back and forth in short segments as

7
well as slowing down and speeding up the recording as necessary. A professional
transcription software was not used due to the learning curve involved with using many of
those programs (Jenks, 2011, p. 23).

At many points the recordings had to be slowed down or repeated due to certain audio
quality in areas making transcribing difficult. There are of course risks with transcribing
interviews, if not done attentively errors can sneak their way in and change the whole
meaning of an answer. Therefore, it is important to listen several times to each portion of
the interview if there is any doubt to what the interviewee is saying (Bryman, 2012, p
431).

Quotes are presented in our results. Most of these are selected and simply pasted in as
written. However, a few of these quotes are marked with [...] which is there to mark that
the quote is put together using several different quotes from the same person.

5.7 Analysis
After the interviews were conducted and transcribed, each interview was coded using
main themes and sub-themes by associating excerpts of text into their respective themes.
The themes were created based on the data received in our interviews. This is called
deriving your themes inductively. A term that is used to describe the inductive process of
identifying analytical categories as the data was analyzed is called thematic analysis
(Braun & Clarke, 2006). This was the method chosen when analyzing the data and
generating themes based on the responses received when informants answered questions
that were based on the purpose.

These themes were to help focus our data from the interviews into areas most relevant to
our original questions. However, an extra category was added to include other excerpts
which carry a common theme or value. The themes chosen are: norms, values, concepts,
and added lastly is a category dedicated to Covid-19 (see Table 1 through 4 for these
categories along with their sub-categories).

Table 1: Sub-themes for the theme norms and what they entail.
Norms
Knowledge Networking & Openness & Definition Environment Customers
and Community Transparency &
Experience Sustainability
Knowledge Connections Availability of What is Environmental Who is the
level of between information and natural concerns and common
informants businesses or willingness to wine? sustainability customer?
and customers and receive of the product
customers businesses information

Table 2: Sub-themes for theme values and what they entail.

Values
Personal Openness Cultural & Community
What the interviewees value Value of openness and Cultural values and definition from a
themselves when conducting transparency to cultural view, and how culture values
business interviewees natural wine

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 Table 3: Sub-themes for theme concepts and what they entail.
Concept
Natural Wine Environmental Care Market Marketing
Themes and ideas Environment as a concept How the market How importers and
around natural wine and the reasons behind surrounding natural restaurant display their
as a concept. natural wine. is changing wines and concepts
behind it.

Table 4: Themes which affected the norm for work environment.

Covid-19
Working during pandemic (covid-19), how it has affected their business and way of operating.

For an example of this coding, during our second interview with Maximillian,
Maximillian said, “Most of them are women actually, I think I would say sixty five
percent are women,” in response to his common customers. This was designated as
“Customer Type” under “Norms”, see table 5 for more examples. The themes chosen
above were chosen to better answer the purpose as focus ended up on norms, values, and
concepts. Furthermore, we added an additional category of miscellaneous to cover
additional common themes which were brought up during interviews, which resulted in
purely the topic of covid-19.

Table 5: Coding sample for norms.

Norms
Knowledge Networking & Openness and Definition Environment & Customers
and Community Transparency Sustainability
Experience
Max: careers Max: I met a Max. I try to Max: goal for a Max: biodynamics Max on
before first or person who be super, super natural was very big in wine customer: Most
mainly in worked in a open winemaker is to production. That of them are
acting and wine bar who make your wine was just a natural women actually,
singing owned a wine completely step and I got very I think I would
bar without interested in that say sixty five
corrections percent are
whatsoever. women

This coding was initially done through the usage of comments over Google Docs. This
allowed for both of the authors to simultaneously work together during coding . During
this initial coding, the authors also took advantage of each other's comments to help more
appropriately code sections and help retain a consistent usage of themes, unless new
theme needed to be added when a new norm was discovered through the interview
transcripts. For example, openness did not become a theme on the coding table until it was
seen in more than one interview.

This coding was then used for a thematic analysis through inputting the data from
interviews into their respective areas on a table to display the results visually and easily.

9
 6. Results
6.1 Norms
Many norms were discovered and discussed during the interviews. Many trends and
similarities were discovered in the answers to the questions between the different
informants.

Both of the importers agree that natural wine is an artisanal product. The four people
interviewed also all had a very similar description of what natural wine is. Peter described
natural wine in the following way.

“Produced in a very small quantity. It is an artisan kind of work. It is a wine where, of

course it is sustainable. It should be at least organic. It's most presumably biodynamic.
And it is a wine that is untouched by man hand more or less. It's just fermented juice from
from grapes. And the way the wine is produced is more or less uncontrolled but
controlled. [Pause] But you don't add things and you don't take things away, in that
meaning you don't filter it, for example. So that would make more or less a natural wine.”
(Peter from Kvalitetsviner)

While Maximillian had a somewhat shorter answer that largely illustrated the same point.

“goal for a natural winemaker is to make your wine completely without corrections
whatsoever.” (Maximillian sommelier at Tyge & Sessil)

According to their descriptions natural wine is a product made from biodynamic and/or
organically farmed grapes using minimal human intervention. It shows that natural wine is
about nature taking its natural course and to avoid human meddling and industrialization.
Our interviewees also expressed the need for openness and honesty. Peter from
Kvalitetsviner mentioned the importance of honesty when selling a product like natural
wine.

“You know, you try to communicate, as honest as possible regarding what you're
selling,”(Peter from kvalitetsviner)

To be honest with your consumers is something that is seen throughout our interviews and
the community and is in fact a norm that people are expected to follow.

6.1.1 Consumer
Both of the Maximillian and Simon mentioned that the majority of their guests are middle
aged women. They describe them as being between the ages of 35-50.

“So are our clients nowaday is kind of a younger public, and when I say younger public,
they are around [Pause] probably like me, 35 in Rutabaga (...) it's quite a lot of women
actually coming to Rutabaga. It's yeah, it's a lot of [Pause]. Like [thinking] Quite a lot of
couples, couples I’d say. And much more women than men.” (Simon sommelier at
Rutabaga)

One of the importers implied that they believe that the main consumers of their wine
might be a “he”, however it could simply be how they worded their response.

“My client enjoys to go to a wine bar. Who are considering themself a natural wine
drinker. That's one client that goes to the to the natural wine bar. He goes to the better
restaurants who like to drink quality at home.” (Mikael from Fruktstereo)

10
6.1.2 Knowledge
How much the average client knows about natural wine however seems to differentiate
since on this Maximillian and Simon had different experiences. Simon said:

“I would say that [Pause] I would say the knowledge level actually on our guest is quite
high because people have come to us. They are [Pause] they are into food and wines and
they have been trying different styles of both food and wine when it comes to that, so. So I
would say it's quite high knowledge, actually.” (Simon sommelier at Rutabaga)

While Maximillian had this to say about his customers knowledge level.

“they've had it, they would like to try something orange. And I suppose it's the normal
way of checking boxes, try to wrap your head around something. But no, most people are
very new to this. And then there are a few experts and then they tend to be experts.”
(Maximillian sommelier at Tyge & Sessil)

Both Simon and Maximillian saw a difference in their general customers level of
knowledge. Maximillan believes that most people are fairly new to the product and thus
do not know that much about natural wine. Most of the customers have heard about
natural wine but do not know much about how it is made or how it is different from
conventional wines. Meanwhile Simon believes his customers' level of knowledge is quite
high. However, we did not clarify what he considers to be a high level of knowledge. But
he describes how they have an interest in wine and food and have tried natural wine
before.

6.1.3 Community
Natural wine is very much about the community surrounding the product and as such,
speaking about natural wine without speaking about the people involved in it is almost
impossible. Mikael at Fruktstereo described it as people are drawn to each other.

“Lot of our customers, I mean, we are drawn to each other. [Pause] Like minded people
are drawn to each others.”(Mikael from Fruktstereo)

Maximillian describes the natural wine community as a big family.

“In natural wine, it’s a big family of winemakers, wine drinkers, wine buyers, sommeliers,
it’s a tight community, really. So, most of us, and that applies to me also, we work with
our friends or the people we work with become friends more or less”(Maximillian at Tyge
& Sessil)

Everything we were told during our interviews tells us a story of community. Natural wine
is not only about the product, it is about everything else surrounding it and especially the
people that work with it and their relationships with each other.

Maximillian, Peter, Simon, and Mikael were all also very clear of the importance of
openness in the natural wine community and in their businesses as a whole. They need to
have an open mind themselves for new experiences and meeting new people as well as
encourage new people to come with an open mind.

“If we just stop and say, like all they have to be in the same mind set as we are, then we
are the narrow minded people. We have to broaden our perspective.”(Mikael from
Fruktstereo)

11
Maximillian had this to say about openness as well
“First of all, we always try to communicate openness. I can’t stress this enough that it’s so
important that every guest feel super welcome. And that might actually be the most
powerful way of communicating our concept because that makes them open to what we
do.”(Maximillian from Tyge & Sessil).

6.2 Values
Certain values are very much ingrained in the culture and community of natural wine.
These values are very important to the natural wine movement and therefore it's important
to the future of natural wine on the Swedish market. Like Maximillian explains in this
quote natural wine the product and natural wine the community go hand in hand.

“When we talk about natural wine, we are actually talking about the natural wine
community. The natural wine community is a reaction towards the commercial wine
industry, and so I would say the idea of having no rules, that it's a paradox, but it becomes
a rule, or a way of being anyway. But of course, the community tries to be less
pretentious”(Maximillian sommelier at Tyge & Sessil)

Therefore, in order to understand what natural wine is, you first have to understand the
community and the values that they have, not only surrounding wine but looking at
business and work as a whole. For many in the community passion comes first and money
comes second or third. Maximillian speaks of a paradox surrounding the rules. It is a rule
to not have rules and any rules that seem to exist are unwritten rules, so they exist at the
same time as they do not exist. Of course, they need to make the business work, but
money is not the main motivator as illustrated by this quote from Simon. Which is part of
the answer when he was asked how he chooses his suppliers.

“I think I find it very strange if you have a natural wine, but then you also work with some
factory wines and some guy that use a lot of chemicals that would make me... Would feel
strange in one way. So then you would do this for money.”(Simon sommelier at Rutabaga)

This sentiment against the main motivation not being money was backed up by Peter from
Kvalitetsviner

“I mean maybe you don't need those personal meetings and maybe you don't need the trust
because the wine you sell is not very personal, the attributes are, "whatever". And it's more
or less just a way of making money. But we do not work in that manner. And I don't think
any of the small importers do, because we all have relationships with our producers. So I
think that's maybe a norm or a rule, that you work closely with your producers and you
sell them as your own. “ (Peter from Kvalitetsviner)

This sense that the value of the product itself along with the relationships formed with
producers outweighs the value of price seems to be a common theme throughout the
community.

All our interviewees had fairly strong feelings surrounding natural wine versus
commercial or industrial wine, and they agree that the concepts go against each other in
many ways. The natural wine community values the concept of natural wines higher than
the money involved in the sale and production of wine. The community also values the
idea of a less pretentious product.

12
6.3 Concepts
Natural wine not only has some potential definitions surrounding it as a norm but is also
described by many as a concept in and of itself. For example, all of the informants
describe natural wine in different ways however all come to the idea that natural wine is
an acquired taste. With Simon using the term “strange” or while Peter described his
experience with natural wine through, “It was just different. And as time grew, I started to
appreciate the wines being different.” Natural wine can also be seen through a negative
lens with the connotation surrounding the “natural” in respect to wine.

“And it's a very strong word still today which make people step back because some have
tried a wine that is maybe defective in some way, it's mousey or it's oxidized in a way that
is not good for it. And then they will think, "oh this is a natural wine? It's disgusting."
(Peter from Kvalitetsviner)

Peters story above throws the light on a perception that holds some interesting thoughts.
He thinks that the costumer’s experiences of drinking something incorrect or “disgusting”
either is a lack of experience or knowledge, or simply the result of a single bad
experience. This sense of something defective, is a direct reaction due to the difference in
expected taste between ordinary wines compared with natural wines. This reaction has
caused a negative connotation for natural wines and gives the perception that natural wine
is bad. While the intent or community around natural wine is intended to be purely
positive as described by Peter, “The wines that are good for nature, that are good for you
and that tastes good because that's all that matters.” The concept of using natural wine as a
primary product for a restaurant is also seen as a concept choice overall.

“Feel that if you start a restaurant, you should have at least some natural wines on the list.
If you're not doing the whole list completely natural, it's almost more common these days
that if you start a new if it's just a sour dough pizzeria it will be all natural wines on it.”
(Mikael from Fruktstereo).

There are also concepts surrounding natural wine such environmental care and the
connection and interaction it has with the environment. Rutabaga is a good example of
how the idea of switching to natural, organic products and a reduction in meat
consumption can also be reflected in the how the wine market will evolve. Simon
describes it as:

“...we think that this is the future restaurant scene, how we're gonna eat, because the way
we also eat meat today is maybe too much. I think that this restaurant is going to be, and it
is a restaurant for the future in one way…” (Simon sommelier at Rutabaga)

This idea was also reflected by other informants through their concern for the environment
in general, along with their preference of the vineyards themselves being so much more
alive than more conventional wineries. This points toward many involving themselves in
natural wine doing it for the same reasons as some people deciding to only eat organic. It
feels more natural and better for the environment.

“Conventional wine is so industrial. And when you walk in the vineyards, everything is
more or less dead. The only thing that grows really well is the vine. But if you visit
biodynamic farm, everything is so vital, everything so alive, it's two different worlds.
When you walk through the vineyards, you feel the difference and it's fantastic really.
Blows you away sometimes.”(Peter from Kvalitetsviner).

13
There are two core concepts when looking at the market surrounding natural as wine. The
market itself along with how natural wine is marketed towards consumers, whether that be
restaurants or the guests themselves. The market itself around natural wine has been
growing for the past several years with all informants describing the increase in interest
and availability. However, some issues have also arisen due to the trend. The bandwagon
market and marketing of the term natural. “This is, this is a big thing now, and a lot of
people want to make money on making natural wine, and that's kind of killed the passion
about natural wine,” shows that Simon feels the market itself around natural wine has lost
some passion because of the results of marketing strategies used by some conventional
producers.

“I saw one the other day. I saw an ad for a wine that was. I don't know if it was one
hundred and ten kronors or eighty-nine kronors. I don't know. It was a low-priced wine
from Europe, and it was labelled as a natural wine, and it was just crazy. I have no idea
how you can produce wine that is sold really cheap at Systembolaget and is a natural wine.
It's an equation that does not match reality... there's going to be a lot of by-products that
are not the real thing.” (Peter from Kvalitetsviner)

Peter’s observation while in the monopoly liquor store just goes to show how bandwagon
marketing has affected the idea of natural wine in a further negative sense due to the lack
of regulation on usage of the term natural, and it has caused false products to appear. This
is the reason why none of our informants use the term “natural wine” themselves in their
marketing. Peter for example uses the term “good wines” in his sales, while Simon does
not even market his wines because Rutabaga itself is an organic only restaurant, implying
that the wines as well are at least organic, if not natural. Mikael on the other hand does not
even imply the wines are natural outside of their company branding, instead he has his
clients taste the wines for themselves, granted these clients presumably know the wines
are natural. Lastly, Maximillian has other issues around his marketing related to working
within a corporate group which causes the wine bar to fall into some of their generic
marketing strategies which can attract the “wrong” customers or customers who are
unaware of the wine bars concept and may enjoy the restaurant to a lesser extent.

6.4 Covid-19 effect on Industry and Market.

Covid-19 has been a concern mentioned throughout the interview. As this has had an
active effect on the individual business’s livelihood and the market as a whole. Peter puts
the covid-19 crisis in an interesting way within the industry.

“So we have to not only compete now on the HoReCa market, we also have to compete
with the other ones on the Systembolaget market, because we're a really small business
and since the restaurant market is more or less absolutely dead right now, you know, we
only have two legs, or one leg, and this one leg is chopped off. And you need more or less
two legs to stand on.” (Peter from Kvalitetsviner)

Through this Peter describes his normal market as a small importer being HoReCa2,
however because of the effect of covid-19 on the restaurant scene, the one leg, the
business has to rely on special orders from Systembolaget which is an unreliable sales
method currently for natural wine on the market. This quote also shows the want and need
to be more available on Systembolaget to help create a second leg of support. However,
though covid-19 has caused many problems, Peter also believes that it will help the
natural wine market on a longer term.

2
Hotels, Restaurants and Cafes

14
 “... not all things with Corona is bad. 99 percent is bad, but 1 percent is really, really good.
And there are some good examples. And the good example is that a lot of people buy
wines from Systembolaget right now that they would never have bought before.” (Peter
from Kvalitetsviner)

This is also inline with the other importer Mikael who has decided to put more attention
into the Systembolaget market who said, “... during Covid-19. We try to focus a little bit
on Systembolaget.”

While on the other hand, wine bars such as Tyge och Sessil are also suffering due to the
pandemic.

“We are responsible for everything and the kitchen is open until midnight, seven days a
week. That is not true right now during these corona times. But we're always open,
basically… Only one-person monday and Tuesday without chef. One person doing both
food and wine. And then we have a chef five days a week. So Wednesday through
Sunday. And just one person on the floor which is just minimum staff.” (Maximillian
sommelier at Tyge & Sessil)

This goes to show how much Maximillian has had to cut staff hours due to the resulting
decreased income from covid-19.

7. Discussion
7.1 Results discussion
Our study shows that the interest in natural wine has grown astronomically in the past 10
years and there are no signs of it slowing down. People are excited about this new
phenomenon and the people pushing it forward are very passionate about the movement
and the product. There seems to especially be room for the male interest to increase since
our study shows that a majority of consumers are women. Vijaya lakshmi, Niharika &
Lahari (2017 p. 34) discuss these differences as women being more driven by interaction,
beauty, and goods with self expression. Mainly because of the way that todays society is
structured and how people are brought up. This can be a reason behind why women are
more drawn to natural wine. The passion and storytelling as well as the environmental
factors can all seem more appealing to women than men. An important factor to also
consider is the traditional perception surrounding wine and beer in terms of feminine and
masculine. Törrönen (2012 p. 135-142) describes that in the seventies and eighties the
perception that women drink wine and the marketing of wine as a feminine project was
normal and other alcoholic beverages such as beer was marketed as more manly. Although
beer was stated being marketed toward women in the eighties wine was not marketed in
the same way toward men. This can today still have lasting effects on the decisions people
make everyday and make men avoid going to a wine bar because it is still considered a
feminine environment. In the results one of our interviewees mentioned their consumers
as a he. We believe that this can be simple stereotyping in the sense that they might not
know the gender of their average drinker and thus uses the gender qualification that they
most relate to themselves or that this is a perception built by possibly many of their
colleagues and the restaurants they sell to being owned and driven by men.

What is natural wine really? According to the study we performed and our research, it is a
product biodynamically and/or organically farmed grape made into wine using no
additives or sulphites (Robinson, 2015, p. 494). In large these facts were agreed upon by
our interviewees. However, they also talked a lot more about the community and the
importance of the community surrounding the product. According to our interviewees,

15
you cannot only define the product when defining natural wine. This is both a very nice
prospect but also somewhat troubling. In order for the natural wine movement to grow, we
believe that there needs to be more steps taken to actually define it as a product especially
from a legal standpoint so the definition becomes more clear and thus can hinder
fraudulent attempts to mimic natural wine. Our informants raised concerns that defining
natural wine may risk killing the soul in the movement and will allow for big industry to
move in. And while this is a risk, it's a risk that we feel needs to be taken in order for more
people to realise the realities surrounding natural wine and not only see it as some trendy
hip product that has the risk of eventually disappearing. Siepmann (2016, p 44) discusses
that a label for organic farming would make it easier for more farmers to convert to those
methods. A similar argument can be made for natural wine if there is a clear definition for
the product and there is the benefit of a label or marking that you can receive if you do it
correctly, this could lead to more producers being willing to take the risk.

The natural wine movement as described by Goode & Harrop (2011, p. 141-142) was
strengthened by our interviewees. They described and exhibited many of the same values
as the big and early pioneers of the movement that began to grow in Italy and France. Our
study shows that this movement has started to gain a strong foothold in Sweden as well
and that the people that pioneer it here hold the same original values close at heart.
However, according to Alonso González, & Parga-Dans (2020, p 2-3), it's important to
begin clearly defining natural wine if it wants to continue growing. There is a lot of
confusion from the consumers on what is and what isn't natural wine and since previously
no regulations have existed this is believed to have somewhat stifled the growth of the
movement and caused a lot of confusion amongst its consumers. They also argue that the
lack of definition makes it hard to perform valuable scientific research in this area. This is
something we agree with. The lack of definition definitely causes a lot of confusion
amongst people and it has made it harder than necessary to perform this study.

Natural wine in many ways seems to be an acquired taste based on our research and
interviews and Simon mentioned that he no longer really enjoys drinking commercial
wines as much anymore. This can be related to the term coined by Pierre Bordieu
(Jenkins. 1992 p. 45). Jenkins (1992, p 46-48) further discusses the meaning of habitus as
socially ingrained habits, schemes and dispositions. This means that people with similar
backgrounds or that live within similar parameters or communities tend to often share
certain habits and dispositions. A groups habitus can shape their actions and how the
groups perceives others. This habitus also exists for people who are used to conventional
wines and have heard of natural wine as being defect and strange wines that you are not
supposed to like. This means that even though both conventional and commercial wine
drinkers both drink wine, both groups can find it an acquired taste or even distasteful
when they taste the other type of wine depending on which group they belong to.

The risk of attracting the “wrong customer” was brought up by Maximillian when
discussing generic marketing tactics. Maximillian further developed this point of view a
bit saying that a wrong customer is someone who arrives at the restaurant with notions
that are untrue or that come there with a certain imagine in mind that does not conform to
the reality. He gave an example of guests that arrive and attempt to order Irish coffee
something that his establishment does not offer customers. He compares it to coming to a
car dealership asking for a bike and being disappointed when you cannot get one. This is a
view that we as authors can understand, if you get customers that will not be happy with
what you can offer, it is going to be difficult to create a good experience for the customer,
thus creating a “wrong” or “right” customer as a result. This can be normal for all

16
businesses. It does not necessarily exude an air of ignorance or exclusivity but rather a
want to be able to satisfy customers.

Throughout the interviews, covid-19 was brought up as a common subject resulting in

changes to how things are currently being done for the business. This has not only affected
the natural wine industry, but hospitality as a whole along with a huge range of other
industries. However, regardless of the current effect which covid-19 has caused, this
pandemic will also play a key role in the development of the natural wine market within
Sweden as it has made importers look towards the wider market offered by
Systembolaget. Though covid-19 has also caused several frustrations for the business’s
with examples such as “losing the one leg to stand on” or “reducing work hours”. A
perfect example of the difficulties was presented by Maximillian talking briefly about how
the business is operation during these difficult times, increasing the work load with less
staff, a staff member working both service and kitchen on Monday and Tuesday for
example, though those are well known to be slower days it can cause a worse service
quality for customers.

Bandwagon effect or bandwagon marketing can be troublesome for the community of

natural wine. If it gets out of hand and the demand grows faster than the supply, it is
possible that other suppliers will attempt to cheat their way onto the market. This can
saturate the market with false products which in turn can ruin the market for the authentic
natural wine producers, something that according to Nilsson (2018) has already been
attempted at Systembolaget at least once. One of our interviewees, Simon, expressed
concerns around the popularity and the fact that many people want to get in on the natural
wine scene right now and make money off the specific market. Peter also expressed
concern about seeing a wine labelled as natural at Systembolaget for the price of around
89-110 Swedish kronor, which in his mind did not make any sense. We agree that there is
a cause for concern with the way things are developing and as we have brought up earlier,
we believe that the laws and regulations surrounding natural wine need to be more clearly
defined to prevent misuse of the term.

7.2 Methodology discussion

We believe using qualitative methods in this research is the correct choice. We did not set
out to gather and analyse mathematical or quantitative data about natural wine. Partly
because that goes entirely against the nature of the subject. As natural wine is a product
based around a community concept, the idea of using personal reflections on the topic
rather than numerical figures gives us a deeper and more clear understanding. It gives us
how and why the community interacts and reacts the way it does. This also allows us to
see how the community views the future of the product and how it will develop not only
as a concept but also on the national market in Sweden based on our informants past
experiences and expertise with the product. While we are lacking the wide range which a
quantitative research method can provide, we feel we chose appropriate informants with
the experience required to discuss natural wine on a knowledgeable and critical level. As
such, our informants all have a minimum of a decade of experience within the hospitality
industry at a range of levels, while having a more current focus on natural wine regardless
of their backgrounds. Since our informants are all very experienced in the field of work,
we found it extremely beneficial for our study that they chose not to be anonymous,
because it gives more credibility to the informants and the study.

Afterwards it is also pretty clear to us that using interviews as our way of collecting the
information was the correct choice for us. All of the interviewees thought that it was a
tricky question to answer when asked directly about norms. However, they all revealed

17
many norms during the discussion related to other questions than that question
specifically. If a questionnaire had been used instead, which would have the participants
nonverbally answering questions online or on paper (Martin, & Hanington. 2012), this
information might have been lost.

Giving out too much information about the study to the interviewee is usually not
beneficial to the study itself (Kvale, S., Brinkmann, S., & Torhell, S. 2009 p. 238). It is
possible that giving out more information than necessary can make the interviewee focus
their answers in a specific category whilst ignoring other important aspects which they
would normally have included. We informed the interviewees about the purpose of the
interview that we wanted to conduct when we first reached out. In this case informing our
interviewees about the study’s purpose served a good purpose to get them excited about
the interview because it broached a subject that they are all very passionate about.

Bryman (2012, p. 135-136) discusses that in some studies the requirement of consent can
not be properly fulfilled due to the nature of the study. In our case however this was not an
issue and all interviewees could give consent before the interviews were conducted and as
far as we are aware none of them were pressured by any outside influence to take part in
this study.

We chose to interview people that work with natural wine on both a restaurant and import
level because we believe they have insight into the industry and market in Sweden.

Transcribing and coding the interviews with our informants did have some difficulties.
For example, some of the interviews had technical difficulties or had to be restarted due to
the program. This caused some information to be lost or cut out in the middle of the
interview with Simon, where the interview lost internet connection and was dropped in the
middle of an answer. When reconnected to continue answering the question, the answer
may have been quickly summarized rather than explained in full. Through transcribing
interviews, a lot of extra information such as emotions, facial expressions or hand motions
are easily lost (Bryman, 2012, p. 430). Though we did not find this to cause too many
issues ourselves as most of the information we were seeking was not affected by the
interviewee’s emotions. Coding transcripts also have several issues, most commonly
referred to as being the issue of context. As coding takes small fragments of text from an
interview, it removes a passage from the full context of an informant's answer (Bryman,
2012, p. 526). According to Bryman (2012, p.526), coding also removes the “narrative
flow” of information due to the fragmentation of what has been said during interviews.

This study may benefit from a successive study at a later date with the resolution of covid-
19 to determine how the natural wine market progressed during covid-19 and how the
process has gone with the expansion of the market through Systembolaget. As such this
study which focuses on the market may not have been appropriately times due to the
effects of covid-19

18
 8. Conclusion
The results from this study shows that natural wine is still developing in Sweden and in
many ways is still in an early stage of development. While all the informants questioned
us as to what we meant by natural wine, when asked directly, all informants defined
natural wine as a product which is a small production with no added or removed
substances from the wine along with organic production., this shows that the natural wine
community has an accepted norm of what defines natural wine, however due to the lack of
any regulation in most regions the term is left ambiguous. This definition given by
informants for natural wine is also very close to the accepted regulation within France for
bottle labeling.

The idea of openness and honesty was brought to attention across all interviews in
multiple instances showing how transparency of the product is extremely important for
how the community works with and around natural wine. The informants preferred giving
stories of the product, production, and environment of the vineyard rather than tasting
profile of the wines when selling their products. This led into the importance of
sustainability within the natural wine community, where the vineyard environment and
production are intended to be sustainable and lively in comparison to conventional
production which focuses on the wines themselves.

With this research we believe we have managed to establish a knowledge base on the
natural wine product and community within Sweden. We feel that further research into
natural wine with a more consumer focus would help to broaden and explain the market
from a more public side. This could also further develop the natural wine community
through awareness.
Research gap

19
 9. References
Alonso González, P., & Parga-Dans, E. (2020). Natural wine: do consumers know what it
is, and how natural it really is? Journal of Cleaner Production, 251.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119635

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 10. Appendices
Appendix 1: Interview Questions for Importers

1. Tell me about yourself. A little bit about your background and how it came to be
that you went to the industry.
2. Tell us about how you started your business – obstacles, opportunities, risks, etc.?
3. Can you give some examples of when you first got up interest in natural wine.
What attracted you?
4. What drove you to become an importer of natural wine?
5. If you were to describe the industry – the import of natural wine – what does it
characterize?
6. Describe what natural wine is to you.
7. How has natural wine evolved – from the past until present?
8. What do you need to know as an importer of natural wine?
9. What standards and rules would you say govern your work considering marketing?
10. Are there any established norms around natural wine that you feel the need to
follow or go against?
11. Part 2:
12. What values do you want to emphasize when describing the products you work
with?
13. In what contexts do you present your products?
14. How would you describe the restaurants that you work with?
15. How do you choose your customers? Or, do they choose you maybe?
16. What do you want to know about a new customer?
a. What do you know about them? (Values, concept etc?)
b. What are the characteristics of these restaurants?
17. How do you promote your products?
18. Last question is about the future. What do you think of it when it comes to natural
wine on the Swedish market?

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Appendix 2: Interview Questions for Restaurants

1. Tell me about yourself. Your background and what you're working on today.
2. What is natural wine for you?
3. When did you start working with natural wine as a concept? (why?)
4. How do you work with importers?
5. How do you choose them?
6. From your point of view, what is the difference between offering a natural wine
and a traditional wine?
7. Can you describe your consumers/guests? Who are they?
8. How do you tell your guests/customers about your natural wine?
9. Are there standards and rules around natural wine? If so, how will you describe
them?
10. Tell me about your strategies for marketing your concept of natural wine?
11. What do you think people should know about you and your restaurant?
12. What is the knowledge level of your average guests? On natural wine
13. How do you present your concept to your guests? (We talked about: Through
storytelling, in print, on social media, in industry magazines, media reports, TV,
radio? Differences in different channels?)
14. What are the challenges in terms of selling natural wine to guests? (Risks,
challenges, obstacles and opportunities. Can be asked as follow-up questions).
15. How has the market developed for the past years?
16. So this is our final question. How well do you think the future holds? What do you
think the future for natural wine and the markets in Sweden is? How do you think
it will develop?

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