Mea Pet Nat

Pet Nat – short for Petillant Naturel, French for naturally sparkling. Wines made by the oldest traditional way of making a sparkline wine: bottling the wine while it is fermenting. Carbon dioxide is released during fermentation and with nowhere to escape to (as it’s sealed in) is absorbed into the bottled wine to be released in streams of bubbles when the wine is open. As the dead yeast from the fermentation is not filtered out, pet nats are often somehere between hazy and cloudy due to sediments at the bottom of the bottle which also give them their characteristic earthy, yeasty flavours. If you want it to the max, give the wine a swirl as you poor it to mix in the sediment.

On the nose, this one will give you key lime pie with yeasty, bread-like qualities with nuances of meadow herbs, with yellow apples, pears, and mild citrus (particularly lime) coming through on the palate. There’s well integrated minerality throughout, with a yeast and fresh fruit finish.

Winemaker, Matija Žerjav has breathed new life into his family’s vineyards, whose cellar dates back to 1852. There are nine varieties planted on nine hectares in Stajerska, and typical for the region the focus is on white varieties: principally Sipon (aka Furmint), Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.