Pet-Nat on the Rise!
5/05/11 -
(Another kind of Pet-Nat)
There are nights, and many a warm sunlit afternoon, when uncomplicated effervescence is called for. That is when a salivating petillant naturel hits the spot. The making of Pet-Nat has multiplied among some of our favorite vignerons over the last few years. The process (sometimes referred to as methode ancestrale) foregoes the introduction of cultured yeast and sugar to spark off the second fermentation in the bottle, instead the wine is bottled before fermentation is complete, hence trapping CO2 in the bottle, along with a little residual sweetness. The result is a gentle froth with a grape-y, medium-sweet honesty that’s refreshingly low in alcohol.
One method ancestral wine that piqued the interest of other vignerons (Eric Texier included) was Domaine Renardat-Fache’s Vin du Bugey Cerdon, from a small region close to the Savoie in eastern France. It is a semi-dry, sparkling rose that is as delightful as cucumber sandwiches nibbled beneath a lace parasol in an English country garden — may be time to cut back on PBS Masterpiece Theater — back to Pet-Nat.
In Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, the natural sparkling method has been fizzing away since time immemorial. Industrial Lambrusco might be heavily manipulated (and produced by charmat method) but the best small-producer examples are essentially Pet-Nat.
More recently, word has it that the Loire is the birth place of the term "Pet-Nat." There are a slew of examples from producers like Domaine le Briseau, Rene Mosse, Thierry Puzelat, Herve Villemade, La Grange Tiphaine, Jean Pierre Robinot, and there's more.
Of course, we’re talking physically active fizz here, naturally when wine is bottled with residual sugar and CO2 there’s going to be some pressure. We’ve heard of bottles exploding before they are shipped, though our friend and partner at LDM Inc., Kevin McKenna, says he hasn’t heard of erupting bottles lately as vignerons have become more experienced and are bottling with less residual sugar. We’d hate to think of Rene Mosse losing an eye. Speaking of, Mosse’s Moussamousettes is in high demand before even arriving on US shores. The sparkling rose will be here just in time for summer. Stay tuned.
Why the rise in what can only be described as purely pleasurable, naturally sparkling wine? McKenna offers this explanation, “I think it is a traditional method that is being re-explored by natural winemakers because it affords the method of making a wine that does not require SO2 to keep it fresh (the natural carbon dioxide in the wine does that). There was a pre-industrial time when this was a method of making wine that could last without the use of conservatives and I am sure that at one time a lot of wines were exactly like this.”
And there you have it. It’s a return to old-school, less invasive ways of winemaking. Here are some of our favorites. –P.G.
