Te Aro Wine Co Toil and Trouble Hawke’s Bay Pét Nat 2018 $27.50
Created by Jules Van Costello (owner of Cult Wines and Te Aro Wines) from sauvignon blanc sourced from the Bridge Pa sub-region (with a teensy splash of Marlborough sauvignon blanc to kickstart the ferment, this is a hyper fizzy, crown-sealed firecracker to help you see out the summer. I’m not a huge fan of the label because it reminds me of something from a Gruffalo book (modern parenting reference there…) – but that’s beside the by. Pétillant-naturel, more commonly known by its nickname pét-nat, is an ancient French winemaking technique dating back to the 1500s. Its name means ‘naturally sparkling,’ and that’s exactly what it is. Crafted using a method called méthode ancestrale, pét-nat’s are bottled before finishing primary fermentation so that they can complete fermentation in-bottle. The Te Aro version is cloudy, fizzy and a bit wild because the winemaker can’t change anything once it’s in the bottle. Pétillant-naturel’s (which are viewed as natural wines) are meant to be drunk young, and this golden-hued example has green apple and herbal tones, funkiness in the mid-palate and wild, woolly length of flavour. Craft beer fans should give this a nudge.
