Like other ground-breaking movements the natural wine avant-garde did not come out of the blue. Most of its methods were already used before but a lot of them were forgotten or neglected in times of increasingly unifying and global trends: sparkling wines produced in the méthode ancestrale, so called pét-nats (pétillant naturel), for example. Pét-nats run through a second fermentation in the bottle and its production demands care and experience. When they are great, they are without any doubt more interesting and quaffable than whatever comes out of a pressure tank. This is why they were reborn by a group of young French winemakers some years ago and in the meantime made their leap to Gols.
The selection of Merlot and Syrah as main grapes for the Pitt Nat Rosé is a tribute to the homeland of the pét-nats (and also rosé). It is whole bunch-pressed, spontaneously fermented and bottled with 20-25g residual sugar still left to ferment. This happens in the bottle where the remaining sugar transforms into carbon dioxide and alcohol. After a December night out in the cold (to freeze the yeasts in the bottleneck) our pét nats are disgorged and refilled with the same wine.
Last year’s version was already fun to drink at breakfast, lunch, dinner, New Year’s Eve, spring, summer and autumn – nothing has changed there, although the flavours are slightly different. It has the colour of pink grapefruit and tastes a little bit like it. It also brings together raspberries, rose petals and grapefruit. It is inciting and dynamic, fizzing fresh and vibrant over the finish line. - Gerhard Pittnauer