All About Pétillant Naturel

Things have definitely settled down in the cellar, and our largest focus now is prepping for the upcoming bottling. In fact, the 2019 Buttorfleoge was just bottled and is finishing up fermentation in the bottle. In bottle?! What are you talking about?! Our Buttorfleoge is actually a pétillant naturel wine, or more commonly known as a Pét-Nat.  Pétillant naturel roughly translates to “natural sparkling” and refers to the Ancestral Method of making sparkling wine. To understand what makes Pét-Nat so unique, you should probably know how Champagne is made.

The most notable difference is that there are two fermentations in Champagne, and only one in a Pét-Nat. To make Champagne, a “base white wine” is fermented to dry and then bottled with a little more sugar, yeast, and wine (called a liqueur de tirage). The wine then goes through an additional fermentation in the bottle, trapping the carbon dioxide and creating the effervescence we all love in sparkling wine. The wine ages on a rack at a 45° angle which allows the sediment to slowly fall to the neck of the wine. The bottles are then “disgorged” which means the sediment is forced out from the pressure in the bottle. The bottle is then topped with more wine or a “dosage” and corked.

It’s probably more accurate to think of Pét-Nat as the “pre-cursor” to Champagne. First, the grapes are pressed and settled in a stainless steel tank. After settling, the juice is inoculated with yeast (commercial or wild) and fermentation begins. This is typical winemaking until the wine gets to around 1 Brix. At this point the wine is bottled and laid on its side to receive maximum exposure to the yeast that is still present in the wine. Fermentation continues in the bottle causing carbon dioxide to become trapped in the bottle, and this is your natural sparkle. After sometime, fermentation finishes and the wine is enjoyed in our tasting room.

Wait, you didn’t disgorge, so what about that hazy stuff?! The haziness seen in the bottle is part of what makes Pét-Nat so exciting. The sediment, made up of proteins, antioxidants, and yeast can add mouth feel and complexity to a wine.  While unsettling to see at first, we recommend simply standing the bottle up and chilling for a couple of hours before enjoying.

Pét-Nat best demonstrates rich fruit flavors, texture, and an acidity from the effervescence that you never knew you wanted. It’s believed that Pét-Nat style wines best showcase the terroir and grapes. Our Buttorfleoge is made from our very own Norton! Look for it on our tasting menu during the month of February.