Low Sulphur, Natural Wine, Pet Nat
What Is Pet Nat? Everything About the Natural Sparkling Wine
What are these “pet nat” sparkling wines my trendy friends keep talking about?
Recently dubbed as ‘hipster bubbles’ by wine lovers, Pet Nat (short for Pétillant Naturel) is a natural sparkling wine.
Being a fully naturally made wine this means it has been made with minimal intervention from the winemaker – during production, who instead leaves nature to do its job and develop the finished product.
What is Pet Nat?
Despite its recent surge in popularity, Pétillant Naturel is actually far from being the new hipster kid on the block.
Like many of the wines being brought into popularity at the moment this sparkler actually dates back pre-Champagne, and has been enjoyed by the French for centuries.
The pét-nat method is not limited to a specific region, but the current leading areas include the Loire Valley, Limoux in France, and Italy, where Prosecco pet nat practitioners call it “col fondo.”
How Is Pétillant Naturel Wine Made?
Like any wine naturally made they are produced with low alcohol (usually 10-12% abv) and with no added sugars or preservatives, essentially making it a healthier alternative to Prosecco – which usually has more sugar in wine.
Pétillant-Naturel (natural sparkling) is a catch-all term for practically any sparkling wine made in the méthode ancestrale, meaning the wine is bottled before primary fermentation is finished, without the addition of secondary yeasts or sugars.
So, pet nat wine is a low sugar wine. This is in contrast to Méthode Champenoise, the method used to make Champagne and other more-common sparkling wines, in which a finished wine undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle with additional yeasts and sugars.
However, Méthode Traditionelle is how organic champagne is made.
How does Pet Nat wine differ from Prosecco or Champagne?
Like many natural wines the end product is usually unpredictable: Opening each bottle is a surprise, evocative of the time and place where it was bottled and although we shouldn’t promote it, it’s the perfect breakfast wine!
The Pet Nat method produces a simpler, more rustic sparkler than Champagne, one that is traditionally cloudy, unfiltered, and often bottled with a crown cap – like a beer, rather than cork and a muselet.
To look at the bright side, the benefit is that Pet Nat’s are affordable, especially compared to some of the astronomic prices of the various Champagne’s out there.
You can easily find a number of different bottles all under £25.00, so get on board and try some of the below options available now through us!
Bonus tip: In case you lost your bottle opener, we know how to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew.
Pet Nat Wines To Try Now!
Fantastic alternatives!
If you are looking for great alternatives, these are our recommendations: Rude Prosecco Brut
and of course Col Fondo
We also invite you to try amazing Sicus Cru Mari Vermell 2012 that is a vegan, organic wine made from rare grape varieties Xarel – lo and Vermell, which are famous in Spain, in Cava region. This wine is produced using biodynamic winemaking technique and is also low sulphite wine.
Cheers! 🙂
In a mood to try out something different? Check out our offer of premium orange wines that has a beautiful orange colour. Not only will you be impressed with its look, but also with its flawless taste!