Are you drinking Pet Nat wines?

Pet Nats, or ‘pétillant naturel’ wines are sparkling wine made using the ancestral method or méthode ancestrale.  These are categorised as natural wines as they are often made with very little intervention. Unsurprisingly, they are not easy to find unless you find a specialist wine seller. But they are very much worth the effort.

Here are 5 reasons why you should drink Pet Nat :

Number 1

There is so much to love!.  Pet Nats, or ‘pétillant naturel’ wines come in such a wide range of styles so, you will be bound to come across wines that you will love. They come in a full range of colours white, rosé and red and a range of sweetness levels. Some may be full bodied and rich, others will be light and fruitier.

They are great wines to drink with food too.

Number 2

They are unadorned! These wines are made with minimal intervention and often organic and biodynamic. So these wines will be of interest in those wanting a wine that is produced using techniques that are better for the environment. 

They will also give you a great insight into how wines are made. You get to taste a wine that may still be undergoing ferment if it still has its lees sediment in the bottle. Alternatively, you can taste how the layering of techniques used in the traditional method interacts with those wines by tasting a wine that is made capturing the carbon dioxide from the first ferment. 

Number 3

They are quite unique!  They require a great deal of skill to be able to produce a quality wine. This is because they don’t use techniques that will hide faults and winemaking errors. Never the less, they are unusual. Because each wine is genuinely unique as the winemaker loses control over that wine from the time it goes into the bottle.

Number 4

You are supporting the small producers!  These small producers dominate this field. And they are often family wine estates. By buying a Pet Nat, you are allowing these producers to continue to revive traditional techniques. They produce wines that the big producers, who are only concerned with their bottom lines, won’t.

Number 5

They are made to drink now!  So, why hold on to them. Chill them down standing up in your fridge to let the lees settle and then handle carefully as you pour and you are all set to go!  It is not like you need anything special to drink them with …. except maybe some friends. Of course!

As a bonus….

They have bubbles!! That is hard to resist.

To read more about Pet Nat wines, read What is ‘Pet Nat’ wine? Should you be drinking it?

Raw wine might be of interest to you if you live in the UK.