Pet Nat: What exactly is it?
Pet Nat is an abbreviation – the full term is “Pétillant Naturel”, which is French and means something like “natural sparkling wine”. But no one says that, because “Pet Nat” simply sounds cooler.
Such a natural sparkling wine is unsulfured and therefore a bit unpredictable. And it is the invention of some crazy French winemakers who became world-famous years ago as part of the Vins Naturels movement.
How do you make a Pet Nat?
The natural sugar contained in the grape must wants to turn into alcohol with the help of natural yeasts. In the process, CO2 (carbon dioxide) is produced naturally.
For the Pet Nat, the crazy winemaker fills the grape must into a bottle during natural fermentation, which is then sealed with a crown cap. In doing so, he makes sure that the must has a residual sugar content of 20 to 30 g per liter. Now the grape must continues to work (ferment) in the bottle, creating a lot of pressure because the fermentation carbon dioxide can no longer escape. Instead, it combines with the wine, so that a sparkling wine is created naturally. The Pet Nat.
Since the crazy winemaker naturally knows that 4 grams of natural sugar in the must creates exactly one bar of overpressure, he can calculate that after about nine months – that is the time the yeast needs to digest the sugar – he will have about five to seven bars of pressure in the bottle. This is comparable to the pressure in Champagne, which, however, sometimes takes several years to build up so much pressure. In return, the Champagne mousse is much finer, because it had much more time to bind the carbon dioxide in the liquid (the wine).
A Pet Nat can be wild and boisterous and is also often cloudy. When you open the bottle, the pressure also likes to release suddenly and may take part of the wine with it, much to the dismay of the person opening it. To prevent this, some of the crazy winemakers disgorge the Pet Nat. This is already known from Champagne. During disgorgement, the fermentation yeast is removed and the bottle is refilled, often with the same dry wine – the so-called “dosage by shipment”. Since this contains no sugar, it is also referred to here as “zero dosage”. Such a wine can then be declared Brut Nature. In fact, most Pet Nats are Brut Nature, because only a few are given sugar and sometimes a little sulfur. In general, however, they are without added sulfur, because the carbon dioxide produced naturally protects the wine and therefore the addition can be dispensed with.
Pet Nats have quickly become a fashion phenomenon, but have now established themselves and are now indispensable in the wine scene.
Which grape varieties are suitable for Pet Nat?
Pet Nats can be made from all grape varieties: Baga, Chardonnay, Loureiro, Alvarihno, Pinot, Riesling, etc.
Another interesting article that examines the topic from an Austrian perspective can be found on Juliane Fischer's blog.
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