For me, these 2 points are exactly what I enjoy about Pet Nats. I find it fun to see winemakers express creativity and it seems that Pet Nats are becoming an outlet for that. I’ve had some really funky Pet Nats but also some really great bottles.
I know it’s ‘col fondo’ rather than ‘Pet Nat’, but @Saul_Mutchnick’s Racing Gloves is a house favorite. Story of Soil did a Gruner Pet Nat last year that’s pretty darn delicious. And Bichi’s Pet Mex is a really fun bottle to try, if you can find it.
Loved your col fondo, Saul.
Pet nats and orange wine in hipster restaurant scare me probably more than they should.
In Italy they’ve always been mainstream if you think about it.
They are easy and cheap, and when i’m in the mood for something glou glou i’d go for it.
I really enjoy lambrusco from Crocizia (7-8€ from the producer) and also the malvasia from podere cipolla.
Lambrusco is a wonderfully food-friendly wine, with the ability to pair well with rich and light dishes alike. It works with spicy foods and aromatic ones too.
And with bread and prosciutto or salame, i can’t think of a better pairing!
I’m going to a party for my LWS that’s all focused on pet nats this weekend, and I’m looking forward to it. In line with the thread so far, I think pet nats can be anywhere from sour beer adjacent to delicious easy drinking wines, and I’m fine with all of it, but I prefer fruit driven styles. I’ve had worse experiences with wine marketed as ‘orange wine’ than I have with pet nats, and I’ve started ordering a sparkler btg when I go out (if my table isnt getting a bottle) since they’re more enjoyable for me than other selections on a cookie cutter btg list.
To the point that they’re easy to get to market and can sometimes sell at a higher price point than still wine, I think that’s really important, especially for getting local wine visibility and onto shelves. Fizzy drinks are fun, and if pet nat is a way of getting someone in the door of a wine shop, then I’m all for it.
I like the category. I enjoyed most of the Pet Nats i had. I take a Pet Nat most summer days over a Rosé…
I think there’s a simple split style wise, disgorged vs not disgorged.
At least an effect on what we get in the glass.
We’ve made a couple of pet nats with a couple of grape varieties that we grow over a few years time. In all cases we do not disgorge at all. Our chenin blanc pet nat is pretty tasty every time we make it and is approachable at a young age. When we tried turning chardonnay into a pet nat it tasted like a beer for 2 years… hardly a quick turn around. That beer flavor subsided and our 6 year old chardonnay now tastes like a decent BdB sparkler. The winemaker at Bel Lago winery(MI) makes a nice auxerrois-chardonnay pet nat that is disgorged and very delicious. In my mind not all grapes make a delicious pet nat wine that one would like immediately. In our experience chenin blanc fits well within the pet nat style whether you disgorge or not.
I definitely rate Michael Cruse’ pet nats as great. His Valdiguie is stunning and since I’ve never made to an Ultramarine allocation, I’m totally happy to drink what he makes when exploring new options.
Nice description of his approach:
The petillant natural wines are a beautiful departure from what many associate, or expect, from this style of wine. Crafted from single vineyard plantings of Valdiguie and St Laurent, the pet-nat’s are produced from grape juice only with nothing else added. They have a higher carbonation than most, typically around 6 bars of pressure, and with 6 grams or below of residual sugar. Finished alcohols are in the 11.0-11.5 range. The wines are also disgorged, so they are bright, clean and show great purity.
Your insight on the profile and arc of a Chardonnay Pét Nat is super interesting @Gary_Schulte. I made two Chardonnay Pét Nats, one in 2018 and another in 2019. The 2018 had that beer-like flavor as you describe, so we left some RS in the 2019 to prevent that. It worked. But, perhaps I should revisit the few bottles I have of 2018 in the cellar to see if it’s made it through the “dumb phase” and blossomed into something closer to a BdB.
Beautiful description. My personal preferences are for disgorged Pét Nats.
No doubt your 2018 will get better. It sounds like you disgorged your wines which means they are not on lees. My 2017 chardonnay is not disgorged which means it’s aged like a methode traditionale . I stand it up under crown cap when produced and it stays there in a cold environment. When cap is removed I can pour out the wine with little to no sediment. The taste and fine bubbles are more like BdB.
I like pet-nats a lot. That said, they are fun, quaffable wines and not really profound. However, as they’ve become more popular, the price has increased to the point that many are not worth the tariff anymore.
How did the tasting go?
I had the Schone Tal sparkling Pinot Noir this weekend and I can now easily see how this style can have mass public appeal. The deliciousness factor was through the roof while the bone dry backbone held though out. My previous experience had only been with the sour beer style and that’s why I thought only geeks could love the style. Turns out I was just ignorant to the broader range
Pet Nat can be very hit-or-miss for me, but so far the one from Falkenstein as well as Ancestral and Ordinaire from Claus Preisinger have been absolutely amazing…
Melsheimer. Good stuff…
I released two Pet Nats this past in May. I would love to get some Berserker feedback. For my Berserker friends, I offer the wine club… use code 15OFF at checkout.
Winemaker notes: The Pet Nat is made from Pinot Noir, picked slightly underripe (19 brix) with really nice acidity…this wine has a very classic sparkling wine profile. This wine is disgorged, so it’s free from sediment. No dosage.
The Caber-Nat is my experimental wild-child wine. It’s 100% Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, picked at 24 brix, saigneed. I didn’t strip this wine of any color, didn’t make any changes to the chemistry…she’s ultra natty. This wine is also disgorged (I’m just not a fan of really hazy wine – I’ve tried plenty). No dosage on the Caber-Nat either. The Caber-Nat taste profile is super interesting. It’s a mouth full of red fruit. It’s developed some super fans, and I always get the same remark: I’ve never seen a sparkling Cabernet Sauvignon. I have many responses to this comment, but won’t go into them here…
I made less than 100 total cases of 2022 Pet Nats. They aren’t in distribution, I sell nearly all of it through my wine club, and it’s what I sip on pretty much all summer.
Cheers and Happy 4th! -Elise