Loire, Phil’En Bulles 2017, Tessier, France

Region: Loire

Subregion: Cour-Cheverny, but not officially in the appellation which only allows still wines.

Note Cour-Cheverny on the East Side. Sancerre is even further East, while Muscadet-land is West.

Grapes: Romorantin! The fourth (? fifth?) white Grape of the Loire, but not to be ignored. It exists only in the Cour-Cheverny appellation, and is very rarely expressed as a sparkling wine. Get it while it’s hot baby.

Vinification: Pet-Nat, no sulfur. Natural bubblesss. See below.

Tasting: This is a lovely explosive wine, with signature Touraine florals striking the first nose: chamomile, jasmine, pear, white peach, and a hint of lemongrass and green tealeaf.  As it opens, it gains a flinty minerality. The palate is sweet on the first attack, with a hint of the sweet chamomile and pear, but finishes with an energizing lemon zest acidity, perfectly balancing the hint of residual sugar. The bubbles are big and lively. A wine for refreshing laughs, less serious in demeanor than champagne, but no less charming or aromatic.

WHAT IS A PETNAT?

The term pet-nat, short for Pétillant Naturel, has come into vogue recently, principally associated with the ‘natural wine’ movement. But it is not a new-age technique of wine-making, but rather one that has lasted centuries.

Recall the Champagne technique:

1. the juice is fermented into a still wine like any other.
2. It is bottled along with yeasts and sugars (liquer de tirage) and closed.
3. This catalyzes a secondary fermentation, and since the bottle is closed, the C02 doesn’t escape, but rather expresses itself in the bubbles characteristic of Champagne.

Pet-Nat, on the other hand, undergoes only ONE fermentation.

The wine is put into the bottle before the fermentation is finished, such that there is still sugar and active yeasts looking to eat those sugars. Boom! Bubbles!