Cascina Zerbetta Shan Pan, Pet Nat 2020

Shan Pan – Total production = 600 bottles

All of the grapes for this wine come from Paolo’s small estate in Piemonte. Sauvignon Blanc makes up 1 of his 4 hectares of vines. Up until the 2016 vintage, all of his Sauvignon Blanc went into his ‘Quattrocento’ white, however, since then, he has done various experiments including a passito (called ‘Safran’) as well as this natural sparkling wine. The grapes for the base wine were harvested early in August whilst the must used to referment in the bottle comes from sweet late harvest grapes (the rest of which normally goes into his Passito).

Vinification: The grapes were destemmed and pressed then fermented on their natural yeasts in steel tank for 2 weeks. Racked to get rid of gross lees then stayed on fine lees for 5 months. In late 2019, the wine was re-fermented in the bottle by using must from late harvest grapes (same vineyard, same vintage) that he had kept chilled in a fridge. No yeast or sugar added. Unfined, unfiltered, no added sulphites.

Cascina Zerbetta Shan Pan Pet Nat is a natural wine with no added sulfites, bottled without filtration. The bottle, therefore, contains a lot of sediment. Some people prefer to allow these wines to stand for a day or so, enabling the yeast deposits to settle and the wine to be poured clear. Nic insists that you invert the bottle to mix up the contents so that the “bits” are distributed throughout the wine.