I’ll try any wine once just to see if I like it.
It IS a Riesling, after all 
I also had this at a party once and was extremely positively surprised even to the point where I could see myself actually buying a bottle. I suppose this was largely due to it not being all that strange/natty in the end but instead really refreshing and drinkable. On the other hand I’ve had some Pet-Nats that were truly disgusting, for example an Alsatian Riesling Pet-Nat with 14.5% ABV and very strong oxidative notes - a glass seemed like too much to endure.
I’d give it a spin. Not sure if I’d actively seek it out, however if I did see it in a shop I’d bag it for a what the hell. Appreciate Michel’s notes on it.
Why not? I could see drinking this the day before my next colonoscopy. It looks like it would clean me out pretty well and could not taste as bad as other things I have used for that purpose.
Sure, I’d drink it. Have tasted a lot hazier wine coming out of the press.
-Al
Look at the bubbling at the surface in the photo, this was obviously shaken up prior to photographing, putting all the yeast and sediment from the bottom of the bottle back into suspension. You can store any undisgorged wines upright for a few days/weeks to settle them and they definitely don’t look so hazy. Like mentioned above, think of it like Col Fondo. You can pour it off or shake it up.
We’ve met Jody and Emily a couple of times, very nice people and they are doing some neat things down here in San Diego. We went and tasted with them after reading Ken Zinns mention them a couple of times. My wife and her friends enjoy this. One friend did make the mistake of not getting it cold enough and made a bit of a mess in her kitchen. It reminds me of drinking some Belgian beers, have had the same haze and bottle oozing happen plenty of times. Their wine is clean tasting, no funk. I’ve had the Birchino Pet Nat and they are easily on the same level.
Update: decided to pop the last bottle of this we have. When else is the NYT gonna profile an obscure 200 case pet nat?Bought a year ago (2018 vintage) and it’s been sitting upright in our regular fridge since then. Popped the crown cap and the bubbles didn’t stop overflowing for 2 minutes (we let it sit in the sink.) After it settled down (and lost a few ozs), we poured. Might have been the loveliest example I’ve had of this wine. It had a distinctly floral aspect, with crisp, tart stone fruit notes. Acid was totally in balance. No VA or even funk. When these are on, they are great!
Bryan Harrington made one (intentional) pet nat, called Pet Bet, from a skin fermented Pinot Gris. Not nearly as hazy as the bottle above, but equally explosive. It was my favorite thing to sip while pouring at his two open houses in November and December. Nothing profound, but tasty and refreshing.
When opening, it helps to hold at 45 degree angle and try to “burp” the crown cap. Even then, helps to do it over a sink with a glass handy.
-Al
Agreed, the 2018 was his best vintage until the 2019. Every year, he’s been getting a better handle on both the pressure and the quality. You do need to get the bottle ice cold, and hold it at a 45 degree angle, with a glass underneath to catch what comes out. But it’s lovely, fresh, and most importantly for a natural wine, CLEAN.
Is this like a neuerwein? Traditional in some parts of Germany. New wine served during harvest.
Isn’t neuer wein often still fermenting with noticeable RS? Pet nats are typically dry or essentially dry and partly ferment in a closed bottle to trap the CO2.
-Al
Would love to try if someone brought it to a tasting.
The only thing worse than a raw wine is a cooked wine.
Sorry.
I would try it, although my pet-nat experiences have been one OK, the other ~half-dozen undrinkable. I agree with the comparison to cider, but I’m better with the residual solids in cider than in wine.
Dan Kravitz
My experience in making and tasting a few pet-nats is that not all varieties & yeast combinations make a good pet-nat. Thus far I would say that chenin blanc and, separately, auxerrois provides a good platform for terrific pet-nats. On the other hand I would say that chardonnay, at least in my hands, makes a yeasty beer wine. For the small experiment of chardonnay pet-nats I have left I’m now doing a quick disgorge before drinking. Tastes decent when disgorged but not exactly a commercial method. Also on the yeast front in pet-nats I think some nucleate bubbles to readily when opening whereas others when chilled well lie low in the bottle until a few minutes after opening. In those cases nice fine relatively clean bubbly can be poured for a few glasses before sediment starts to appear.
Maybe we have two categories of wine drinkers.
1/wine snobs…us…we want ‘normal;’ wine from vineyards better than the average vineyard
2/people who drink to party, to have fun, get buzzed…maybe this direction includes txakolina, pet nat, piquette, Sangria etc and ends God Knows where…white Port and lemon juice??
I’d try wines like this one from Kick On Ranch, but probably wouldn’t buy a bottle.
Oak Knoll winery used to make a raspberry wine…maybe they still do…fantastic stuff …Since raspberries are more expensive than grapes, it can’t have made a lot of money for them.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
+1 on both counts. To wine geek friends, I say “it’s a distant cousin of Lambrusco”. To beer/cider people, the pitch is that if they like Kriek or Rare Barrel, they should try this. I’ve never had J Brix version but La Garagista is fantastic and far from cheap at around $50/bottle.
Porque no los dos?