Pet Nat Chat

Rosie Birkett and I talk natural wine + the most fun fizz you’ve ever tasted

Photo © Georgia Glynn Smith

As someone who writes about wine I’m always interested to know what people are drinking so when Rosie Birkett, a food writer I really admire, posted a few weeks ago that she was cracking open a bottle of pet nat my ears pricked up.

So why would that be interesting? ‘Cos you have to be in the know for pet nat, or pétillant naturel to give it its full name, to be on your radar.

It’s a semi-sparkling natural wine which is made by bottling the juice while it’s undergoing its first fermentation as opposed to ageing it on its lees, the more conventional ‘champagne method’ 

It results in a wine that’s deliciously vibrant and fruity (it’s normally released the year after harvest rather than a couple of years down the line) and just gently fizzy. Most are under 12% too which makes them usefully low in alcohol.

photo © Georgia Glynn Smith

I suggested to Rosie we should hang out and try some and she volunteered to come up with some food that would go with it - which included a brilliant take on lobster rolls made with much more economical prawns, a gorgeous peach salad with crispy capers, halloumi croutons and smoked prosciutto and a confit garlic, tomato and potato frittata. If you’re a subscriber to her newsletter A Lot on Her Plate - which you should be - she’s posting the recipes tomorrow.

We also thought we’d share our experience in this Pet Nat Chat to encourage you to try them - and other natural wines -  for yourself.

Photo © Georgia Glynn Smith

Fiona 

So, Rosie, tell me how you discovered pet nat.

Rosie 

I first heard the phrase via my parents. Dad used to enjoy a pétillant wine - but then I started to be aware it was being used in the context of natural wines.

Then a few years later I was lucky enough to be taken to Paris by Eric Narioo of Les Caves de Pyrène for a piece I was writing for the Independent on Sunday and had a crash course in the wonders of natural wine, visiting all sorts of fabulous scruffy little natural wine bars like Le Verre Volé in the 10^th arrondissement.

Fiona

My experience was similar. My late husband, Trevor, developed a passion for it about 12 years or so ago and we always used to hang out in natural wine bars when we were in Paris. TBH he was a lot more into them than I was. In those days they weren’t that consistent but I always adored pet nat

Rosie

I found them incredible. Pet nat really epitomises the idea that natural wine is alive in the bottle. There was nothing like them - they tasted so lively and vital. Really expressive 

Fiona

Did you try them from anywhere outside France? 

Rosie

Yes, in Sicily where they use lots of indigenous grapes. I was really captivated by a pet nat that was made from Zibibbo at Enoteca Solaria in Ortigia.

Fiona

That’s such a great name for a grape variety (for those of you who don’t know it’s a kind of muscat so really fragrant). Aromatic grapes make great pet nat - and orange wines, come to that.

Rosie

Then I used to hang out in wine bars in London like P. Franco (which has now reopened as 107 Wine Bar)  I loved how relaxed the whole culture was around natural wine and how unsnobby it was. P Franco was a real wormhole. I always used to come out with a bag of expensive bottles I couldn’t really afford!

Fiona

Ah. The cost. We should talk about the cost. Natural wine, pet nat, is expensive. Over £20 a bottle usually. How do you feel about that?

Rosie

I don’t have a problem with it because I buy them as a special treat to really savour. You have to see them as a craft product. Think about the way the land’s been farmed, the way the wine speaks of where it’s from. How labour intensive it is to produce it. All the different issues winemakers have to contend with. The weather for a start. The idea that wine is an agricultural product has always stayed with me. I do want to support guys who are doing something really well. 

Fiona

Me too but people - among them my readers - don’t always see it that way. I’ve got friends who won’t spend over £10 a bottle although they could well afford to. But it’s a choice basically isn’t it? Some wouldn’t bat an eyelid on spending twice that on a gig or a football game. 

What about the way these wines taste? They’re can be quite challenging can’t they? A lot of people in the trade dismiss them as cidery. Does that ever put you off?

Rosie

Well some can be challenging and I’ve had my fair share of wrong ‘uns but the idea that all natural wine tastes like cider is bunk. 

Fiona

I think it’s a question of knowing what to expect. I used to have a natural wine blog and I rated the wines like traffic lights. Green was a wine that most people wouldn’t be able to tell from a conventional wine. Amber flagged up that it might taste a bit different but you should still enjoy it and red was for natural wine aficionados only. Everyone’s taste is different of course so what some people might regard as amber would be red to others. And your palate adjusts and perceptions change just like it does with food. Think olives, for example. Few people start off liking those.

Rosie

I love this idea. Traffic lights is a great way to approach them. You need to come at it with different expectations. Pet nat is nothing like traditional sparkling wine. If I wanted the elegance of a champagne I wouldn’t go for pet nat

Fiona

Of course the bottles look so different too. 

Rosie

Yes they’re amazing. I love this one from Lost in a Field. It’s so incredibly colourful - it looks like unicorn’s tears.

Fiona 

I’d rate that as an amber. Different but delicious! I think people who drink Belgian beers like gueuze and other sour beers feel most comfortable around pet nat though craft cider is probably the closest parallel. Pet nat made from apples and pears rather than grapes.

Rosie

There’s something special about wine though …

Fiona

Totally. And as Tim Wildman who makes the Lost in a Field said “It’s fun wine not fine wine.”

So what did we think of the wines? Well I’ll be writing about them for the Guardian shortly but of the ones we tasted we liked the Pet Nat Vol 4 from  Weingut Fuchs und Hase from Austria, a rich peachy blend of muller thurgau and grüner veltliner (£24.90 Monty Wines and the gloriously fruity deep-coloured Ham Street pet nat from Wiltshire, a blend of pinot noir, pinot gris and bacchus that is more like a light red. That costs £29 from Highbury Library which rates it 4/5 on their ‘wild scale’. (Bit like my traffic lights!)

Lost in a Field’s 2022 Frolic Pet Nat is £29.99 from Grape Britannia and the gloriously peachy Astro Bunny pet nat from Australia - which actually does include a smidge of Zibibbo - is £32 at dropbylocal.com

Me, Rosie and photographer Georgia

We’re not saying we didn’t have fun doing this but we also put quite a lot of work into it, especially Georgia who took all the best pictures and Rosie who made all the food so if you’ve enjoyed the piece and learnt something from it maybe you’d consider subscribing to our newsletters. Both give you the option of joining up for a month - for less than a glass of pet nat!

Photo © Rosie Birkett

If you want the recipes Rosie created (which will be up from Friday June 28th) here’s a link to her Substack A Lot on her Plate