Are PÉT-NATs Good or too HIPSTER???

It is summertime. So for me, that means it's time for white wines and sparkling wines. We have some fun, sparkling wines here today. A little bit funky, a little bit cloudy. These are for the alternative hipster crowd. You see these types of wines in a lot of natural wine bars and they can be a lot of fun. Here today, I have some Perriat Natural, also known as Pet Nats. I have some Colfondo Prosecco and have a Lambrusco made in a Pet Nat style. Trying to play the hipster part here with my big glasses, although I don't know how long these are gonna last because they're reading glasses and I can't really see anything, making me a little bit dizzy. Champagne and a lot of premium sparkling wines are made by the traditional method. And what that means is there's a base wine, the wine's then bottled, then it undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle. That's what creates the carbon dioxide. Four of these wines here are Perriat Natural or Method Ancestral, which were the first sparkling wines. They were actually discovered in Limoux, not Champagne. What happens is the wine is bottled before fermentation is completed. Back then, they didn't know fermentation was completed because they didn't have a lab. Therefore, fermentation would finish in the bottle, which would give off a little carbon dioxide. Pet Nats, the bubbles are maybe not as fine as those in Champagne. They're usually a lot of fun to drink and they're pretty inexpensive. They're low in alcohol too. There was really a renaissance of these wines in the Loire and in the Jura in France, although you still see them in Limoux. But Limoux, Method Ancestral, those wines are just a touch sweeter because sometimes you can't control the total fermentation that happens in the bottle unless you get pretty skilled. Pet Nats are really hot in the natural wine circles. And I remember stories of when natural wines were first starting to become fashionable. The producers talked about how bottles would explode because they didn't really get the technique down yet. But today, usually you're gonna get high quality Pet Nats. These wines are really unique. Sometimes they're hard to score because they're just juicy, low in alcohol. They're fun, they're not supposed to be super complex. I think fans of sour beers, craft beers, are really gonna get into this style of wine. But let's just taste. Even though I'm dressed up all hipster, I'm gonna drink all snobby. I've got my Zolto Universal glass. This is a great glass, a little bit taller. I think it's gonna be great for sparkling wines. I don't like drinking sparklers out of flutes because they're so small, you don't get all the aromas. Gonna be drinking out of a glass that's about four times the price of some of these bottles. That actually makes me anti-hipster or snobby. I don't know, but let's taste. Some of you like to know about my watches, and today I'm just wearing an ultra hipster Timex Quartz field watch. I think I'm gonna have to take these glasses off because I can't see really well. Let's get started here. First, we have a true Pet Nat. This is Nature's Revenge, Petit Ant Naturel, 2023. This is crafted by Pierre Antonin in Carcassonne, so in the Languedoc. Don't know anything about these wines, but let's taste it. I know this is 100% Grenache, strawberry, kind of a rosé Pet Nat. Usually, these Pet Nats are sealed with crown caps. You can disgorge Pet Nats. Actually, I prefer Pet Nats that are disgorged. In the past, when Pet Nats were first starting to become trendy, sometimes I'd open them and they'd just explode, and you lose like a third of the bottle. You wanna make sure that sparkling wines are really cold so they don't explode, but just in case, I do have a pan here, just in case. Let's see here, here we go. Please, please, please don't explode all over all my nice equipment. All right, all right, all right. Didn't explode here. So let's see, this comes in at 19 bucks. 12% alcohol, which is a little bit higher for Pet Nats in general. That's usually in the champagne territory. Grenache is a grape that has problems with high alcohol. Let's give this a smell here. As you can see, real pink color. This really smells, I used to be more into it, and occasionally I do drink it. Kombucha tea, fermented tea, that's what this smells like. It smells just like this passion fruit, almost like a grapey mango synergy. That's the Kombucha brand that I buy. Now they're trendy. I remember when I bought them, they were like two bucks a bottle. Now I went to the store and I think they're five bucks a bottle. Yeah, yeasty, sour, strawberry, really Kombucha-esque. The bubbles look pretty fine though. Let's see here. Bone dry, well, it smelled so sour on the nose, but on the palate, there's so much sweet strawberry flavor. It's pretty good. I would love to drink this on a patio a hot summer day before a barbecue. Bubbles, the mousse can be pretty aggressive. There's not a super long finish. I mean, these Pet Nats are supposed to be fun. They're not supposed to be super serious. I'm not really gonna score these vines because sometimes Pet Nats, these type of sparkling wines are just really hard to score. Fun, juicy. I mean, a lot of people might not even think this is wine. You don't even feel the alcohol. For a guy that's not usually that crazy about Pet Nats, I'd prefer to drink champagne or cabinet Riesling on a hot summer day. I'm gonna give this a thumbs up. I think it's good. It's very good. Not complex, but hey, it's fine. Next up, we have another Pet Nat. This is the Belanda Con Alti Non Filtrato. 2022, as a vintage, comes in 11%. This has the sediment on the bottom. You can actually shake up the sediment and drink the wine with it. You'll have some more yeasty flavors. For me, it doesn't matter. I'll drink it. I won't drink it. Let's see here. I hope this doesn't explode. I didn't get the bucket out, but I trust. All right, didn't explode. This is made out of the grape Galera. This is made by a Prosecco producer. It's a white Pet Nat, a little more, it's kind of like a green straw in color, has the color of like a crispy white wine. This is actually super complex and good. This is really yeasty, got lime grass notes. This almost smells like a sparkling Gruner Veltliner. I can't remember if I've had a sparkling Gruner Veltliner before. I know that they exist, but that's what it smells like, lime, Thai basil. This is actually super complex yeastiness. On the palate, it's more crispy, clean, like the fruit kind of disappears, but I like the complexity, very mineral driven. This is like a Pet Nat for connoisseurs, I should say, because there's a lot of complexities. It's more mineral-y, slate-y. I think this wine's less than 20 bucks in the US or in Europe, I know that, it's that for sure. I think that the Nature's Revenge, the first Pet Nat, is gonna be more crowd-pleasing. Not everybody's gonna like this wine because it's more mineral, it's not as fruity on the palate. Doesn't have the longest finish in the world, but I still think it's delicious. I'd give that a go, this is a good start here. I actually think I like that better than their normal Prosecco's. Sorry, Belanda. Let's, speaking of Prosecco, we're moving on. This is the only non-Pet Nat here, but it's a cool, funky, trendy wine. This is the Adamy Colfondo Brut Nature, Valdo Biadene Prosecco Superiore. This comes in at 20 bucks. What happens in Prosecco, you make a base, dry wine. You then start a second fermentation in a pressurized tank and then bottle it. It's called the Charmat Method. That's where you get the fine bubbles. The Italians are probably the best in the world at that because Prosecco's the most sold sparkling wine in the world. Colfondos are like a throwback to the old school Prosecco. Colfondo means with the bottom, there's sediment. What happens is you make the base wine like a normal Prosecco, a normal dry wine. You then bottle the wine and start a second fermentation in the bottle, kind of like champagne. Sometimes they can be cloudy and a little bit yeasty. I like this producer, even though I did a blind tasting with Prosecco and their wines didn't show as well as I wanted to, but I've never tasted their Colfondo before, so I'm excited. Again, this comes with a champagne topper. You wanna put the wine at a 45 degree angle. You wanna hold onto the cork and turn the bottle just ever so slightly until you're gonna, we're gonna twist it, twist it. Oh, this is tight. Hold on, I might have to move it this way. Oh, this is really tight. I hope this doesn't explode. I have my bucket here. You wanna make as little noise as possible when you open it. Okay, Prosecco again, made with the grape Galera, similar color to the Petnat. This is complex. Fresh thyme, grass, lemon, white pear type flavors with like a touch of breadiness, like yeastiness, not bread, like fresh baked bread. Not like, you wouldn't mistake this for a champagne nose, but it has some of those yeasty, toasty characteristics. Let's give this a taste. This has like the champagne, bready, yeasty-like flavor. Bubbles aren't as fine as champagne, but man, this is, Colfondos are all so much fun to bring to a party because people know Prosecco, but you bring a Colfondo, it's unlike anything that people haven't tasted before. A lot of times, sweetness does carry the flavors in Prosecco. This is a Brut Nature, so zero dosage. Maybe they disgorge this then, even. Maybe it is made like a full-on method traditional style. Out of the first three wines here, this is the wine that I personally would want to drink the most. I think that the Rosé is the most friendly, the most delicious, but this is complex. It actually has length. I wasn't going to be scoring these betonats because they're kind of funny, but this kind of drinks more like a normal wine, so to speak, and a wine that would, I don't think I would quite go to like the 90-point range, but high 80, and it's delicious, high 80s. That's worth the 20 bucks, just in the fact you bring it to a party and it's a great story to share with everybody. I'm impressed. Let's move on to a wine that is a method ancestral, a betonat, even though on the website or the information I found, they don't really call it a betonat. This is the Chapoutet, major producer, big, big-time name in the South of France. Compilat, this is the Esteban 2021. 41 bucks, Brut Nature. This is made of Viognier. I'm very interested to taste this. Viognier aromatic grape responsible for the great white wines of the Northern Rhone, namely Condrieu. There's also a small Appalachian, Chateau Grille, that focuses on Viognier. It's a grape that's not high in acidity. It's high in alcohol, too, so that can be a bit of a problem. So with sparkling wines, you usually want grapes that are not fully matured, so the acidity's higher than the sugar content. That's why you're gonna get that great acidity. So I'm really gonna be surprised how this is gonna be, if this is actually gonna be any good, coming like Viognier for a sparkling wine. I don't think I... There we go. I got it right. I've never tasted sparkling wine made 100% of Viognier before. So now I've tasted some weird wines and some weird sparkling wines. Let's give this a go. Brut Nature, so I'm guessing that this was disgorged. I do like Pet Nats that are disgorged or Method Ancestral wines that are disgorged, just because sometimes I know the bottle's not going to explode. Let's give this a smell. Okay. Doesn't scream Viognier to me. When I think of Viognier, I think of yellow peach. I think of white flowers. I also think of daffodils. Get a little bit of white peach. More mineral, just a touch of bread, not a touch of yeastiness, but just a little bit. It's fun. I'm starting to get a little bit of the white flour, but still, not screaming Viognier. Brut Nature, so bone dry. Tastes a little bit funky on the back end, like Chipotle is the more classic producer. I would expect it to be less funky. I would expect maybe the Bolanda or the Nature's Revenge to be a little bit more funky. It's got a touch of funkiness on the back end, which I kind of like. Sometimes when I drink Pet Nats, I don't want them to be like 100%, just all fruity and boring. I want a little bit of a funkiness. I admit, sometimes I want to drink the crazy stuff. Sometimes they're crazy natural wines with a little bit of fulch, because you just want to try something different. So that's exciting me. This kind of has a hint of oxidation. It's like almond dried fruit note you get sometimes in orange wines. It's very complex. I like it a lot. I got to compare, go back to the Colfondo. I don't see which one I like the most. I think structure-wise, the Chipotle might be the better wine, the Esteban. However, it's double the price of the Colfondo. The Colfondo is a little bit cleaner, a little more familiar for a lot of people. So it's so funny. The Chipotle, the most classic producer here, it's got a touch of funkiness. This must come from grapes. Oh, this is Demeter certified. So this is a biodynamic wine, if something that you're into. I actually, Chipotle, a lot of his Northern Rhone Estates are biodynamic, but I like this a lot. The only thing is it's 41 bucks. You step up to 10, 15 bucks more and you're drinking champagne. If somebody's pouring that to me, I'm very interested. I'm enjoying drinking it. But again, you're coming close to champagne prices, but it's a good wine. Wine's not all about price and flavor. It's context and it's all these factors involved. I mean, this is thought provoking. I think the great Hugh Johnson said, when I drink a great wine, I don't want an exclamation point. I want a question mark. So moving on, we have a Lambrusco made in the Method Ancestral or Pet Net style. This is the Cleto Chiarly Lambrusco del Fondatore. This is Lambrusco di Sobrato. It's secco. So it's a dry Lambrusco. I made a whole video breaking down the sweetness levels of different varieties and different styles. Just do a search for that or I'll pin it in the top comment. I don't wanna go over it. All I know is when you're drinking a well-made dry Lambrusco, they're amazing. I'm opening this right now and I'm gonna have it with pizza later. Lambrusco and pizza is like one of the best pairings ever. This comes in at 22 bucks and it's pretty widely available. I have to admit to you, I have drank this wine before in the past quite a bit and I asked for a sample because I was doing this video and I wanted to show you this because I think a lot of you are sleeping on Lambrusco when you shouldn't be. Lambrusco can be absolutely delicious and it goes with so many things. Kind of like this pink raspberry juice type color, almost like a Ribena, that British soda type of color. Lambrusco, hailing from Emilia-Romagna in the center of Italy, known for its great food, one of the greatest regions in Italy for food. Italy's full of great regions but Emilia-Romagna right nicked the cake and Lambrusco goes so well with the cuisine. This has raspberry Ribena juice, even sour cherry type flavors with just a little bit of grass earthiness. I like Grasparosa Lambrusco sometimes because they're pretty tannic and they're darker. This is a little bit lighter in color. It's actually really light. This is almost like juice. This is like raspberry juice with a little bit of fizziness. 11 and a half alcohol has this nice sour note on the back end, has so much acidity. I can't wait to have this one. As I spit my, you know wines, you know that a wine has acidity when it makes your mouth salivate. I think I'm really gonna enjoy that with pizza. And I'm telling you, Clotto Chiarli is a very good producer of Lambrusco. Even their basic Modena, most known Lambrusco is fantastic. Something you have to seek out. Let me put the glasses back on. So tell me, do you like pet knots? Do you like funky, unusual, sparkling wines? Do you have any favorite producers, favorite regions? I'd love to hear. Drop it in the comments below.