Pétillant Naturel (Pét-Nat)

If your sparkling wine is cloudy it isn’t necessary that it is bad or corked, in fact it could hold an amazing tasting experience… This is Pétillant Naturel.

What is Pét-Nat / Pétillant Naturel?

Pét-Nat is the abbreviation for Pétillant Naturel, it is the French word for ‘naturally sparkling‘. In wine production terms it is called ‘methode ancestrale‘. In simple terms, it is a sparkling wine in which the first fermentation is completed within the bottle so you will be left with yeast sediment, it is not disgorged in order to take out the yeast sediment. These type of wines are usually held with a capsule (beer cap style) or cork and cage.

“Pét-Nat is made via the Méthode Ancestrale which is the oldest way of making sparkling wines dating back to the 16th century, the method was said to have been created in the Limoux region of France by monks.” source glassofbubbly

What flavours and aromas can you expect from a Pét-Nat / Pétillant Naturel sparkling wine?

The beauty of these wines is that you can have a varied display of aromas and flavours from a single bottle of bubbly. The way in which you will be served this wine, especially via sommeliers, is that the bottle is slowly rotated so to mix the sediment (yeast) within the clear wine. This process causes the wine to adopt a cloudy appearance and a change in flavours and aromas.

The typical aromas and flavours from mixing in the yeast sediment can range from yeasty to pear (dry style).

The best way to experience a Pét-Nat / Pétillant Naturel is to serve it initially as a clear wine (unmixed with the yeast sediments), then to serve further glasses each time slowly mixing – You will see a progress of cloudiness and also a variation of aromas and flavours.

Normally one bottle gives you 6/7 servings and a great way to experience the full potential of a Pét-Nat / Pétillant Naturel sparkling wine is to serve a glass in different levels of cloudiness:

The wine we used is the Radgonske Gorice Renina Pétillant Naturel from Slovenia.