Move over Matcha - why Pet Nat is the drink of the summer - and where to buy a bottle in Scotland
It has been a summer of colourful drinks - from acid green matcha lattes to tomato infused martinis. But Rosalind Erskine has found a winner, and it’ll outlast any social media trend.
At the start of the summer I attended a brilliant Uruguay wine tasting at Glasgow’s One Devonshire Gardens hotel, hosted by Amanda Barnes, an award-winning wine writer and a leading authority on South American wines. The night started with a glass of, what looked like to me, cloudy orange diluting juice. I turned, confused, to the waiter, who said simply: “I’ll let Amanda explain.”
This was my introduction to Pet Nat or Pétillant naturel to give it its full title. A fruity sparkling wine that’s older than champagne. And it’s delicious. After trying it back in May I began to see it on menus everywhere - from the newly opened coffee shop/bar down the street to the fabulous vegetarian restaurant I and some friends went to for my birthday.
Like Matcha, it was turning out to be the drink of the summer. But unlike most Matchas, with their sugar laden syrups and endless posts on socials, this is just a really lovely glass of fizzy, fruity goodness. An ideal start to a meal or toast to the end of the week. Every time I’ve had it, it has been a glass of pure joy - fruity but not too sweet, fizz but without being too strong - the ABV can range from 7.5% to 12.5%.
I asked The Scotsman’s wine expert Rose Murray Brown about Pet Nat, and why so many people have chosen it as their drink of the summer.
She said: “With its minimal intervention winemaking processes, it is popular with natural-winemakers. Pet-Nat is made using either the ‘interruption’ or ‘intermission’ technique. The first is about 500 years old, known as méthode ancestrale or méthode rurale (single-harvest wine; fermentation interrupted by bottling). The second method is when fresh juice is added to base wine from the current or previous vintage.”
As for its popularity, this comes from its wide appeal as Rose explained: “Pet-Nat can be any style, from any region and made from any grape. They can be dry, sweet, white, rosé, red or orange - made in small quantities by artisan winemakers around the world. There are in fact 45 pét-nat producers in the UK alone (the best is Davenport Vineyards).
“The fizz has a frothy, floaty mousse and pure fruits, a bit like real cider. If they are cloudy, this is not a fault. If they are clear it means that the winemaker has disgorged the wine, taking it off its lees.”
As Pet-Nat is best drunk young, they don’t tend to benefit from long maturing, the price point isn’t astronomical.
So as we reach the end of summer, but hopefully not the end of the lovely weather, here’s to Pet Nat. A drink I didn’t know existed at the start of the summer, but one which has made it into many meals and gatherings so far.
Rose Murray Brown’s Pet-Nat recommendations
WHITE PET-NAT
- Davenport Pét-Nat (England) £22-£26 Sip Wines, Grape Britannia, Monty Wines
- Fuchs und Hase Volume 2 Pét-Nat (Austria) £27 North & South Wines; Les Caves de Pyrene
- Pet Native by Maison Crochet (France) £26.50 Made From Grapes, Glasgow
- Celler de les Aus (Spain) £19 L’Art du Vin
ROSE PET-NAT:
- Tim Wildman Astro Bunny Pét-Nat 2024 (Australia) £17 The Wine Society
- Ancre Hill Pét-Nat Pink (Wales) £19 Ancre Hill Estates; Cheers Wine merchants; Blas Ar Fwyd
- Botanica Flower Girl Pét-Nat Rose (South Africa) £19.50 The Champagne Company
- M&S Rose Pet-Nat Brut (England) £15 M&S; Ocado
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