2017 Yangarra Pét'Nat

“Pét’Nat” is short for petillant naturel (French). Petillant denotes lightly bubbly, and naturel refers to the fermentation by native yeasts from the sugars of the grape. We have honoured the natural process by not making any additions. These natural methods mean each bottle may vary a little, and there will be harmless yeast and crystal sediment in the wine. Serve chilled to minimise foaming.

VINEYARD INFORMATION

Our estate is devoted to southern Rhone varieties, and this wine is made from Grenache and three of the rarer varieties from this region: Carignan, Cinsaut and Graciano. All are planted on sandy soils. The vineyard is certified Biodynamic (certification # 11587) with Australian Certified Organic.

We have quite a practical approach, with our philosophy focused around healthy and alive soil, which involves no use of synthetic herbicides or fungicides, use of compost and biodynamic preparations, use of sheep in winter to graze under vine, and minimal mechanical soil disruption.

WINEMAKING INFORMATION

Hand-picked, destemmed and berry sorted, these berries were foot trodden and left to colour for approximately 3 hours and then lightly basket pressed.This juice was settled overnight, and racked by gravity to another vessel for natural fermentation. There have been no additions of yeast, enzyme, acid, tannin or sulphur. We bottle the fermenting juice at approximately 0.7 Baume (or 12 g/L Sugar) and the remaining sugar is fermented to create the small bubbles.

This vintage produced heavier amounts of tartrate crystals, and was causing the bottles to open very vigorously. Because of this, we chose to disgorge the wine, removing much of the solids normally associated with Pét’Nat. Bottled April 2017. Disgorged August 2017. Certified Biodynamic.