Pét-nat: sparkling wine made by the ancestral method
Pét-nat (short for “pétillant naturel”) is the oldest method of making sparkling wine, also known as the ancestral method (méthode ancestrale).
How is it made?
The base wine is bottled before the end of the first fermentation, so that the remaining sugar finishes fermenting in the bottle and the carbon dioxide that forms stays inside. Generally no further sugar or yeast is added, and it is not always disgorged either.
What is the wine like?
That is why pét-nat is often cloudy, yeasty, raw and spontaneous in character. This is exactly where it differs from the clean, bread-crust style of traditional sparkling wine.
