Petillant Naturel wines pre-date the famous Sparkling wines of Champagne. Where Champagne becomes bubbly from a secondary ferment inside the bottle, a Pet Nat is made fizzy by bottling the wine before the primary ferment is complete.

During the primary ferment, as the yeast eats the sugar in the grape juice that creates the alcohol in wine, they produce carbon dioxide as a by-product. When you bottle that juice and trap the gas, that’s what makes Pet Nats fizzy.

It’s a difficult thing to get a Pet Nat right. Timing is everything. Some become extremely volatile and explosive if bottled with too much pressure, some become more of a ‘Flat Nat’ or a ‘Pet Not’ if bottled with not enough.

And as they are bottled without any preservatives, the potential for these wines to go sideways in the bottle is always a risk.

There are many examples of these wines to explore across Australia but currently there a few producers who stand out from the pack with regards to quality.

Above is a list of producers who have got the dark art of Petillant Naturel nailed. If you’re looking to explore these exotic sparkling delights, these Pet Nat Pros are the very best examples we have come across.