In something of a David and Goliath story, English and Welsh pét-nat, or ‘Brit-Nat’ as it’s being dubbed, is on the cusp of going mainstream, giving traditional English sparkling competition.
Taking pét-nat out of its natural habitat of hipster wine bars in East London, last May M&S became the first UK retailer to stock a Brit-Nat, releasing an 11.5% own-label rosé blended from Pinot Noir, Meunier, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris from Heppington Vineyard in Kent.
Pricing the fizz at £14.80 a pop, according to Tim Wildman MW, the man on a mission to make Brit-Nat a UK mainstay,
M&S sold out of its initial run of 9,000 bottles in two months.
“While 9,000 bottles in M&S terms is tiny, it was a successful proof of concept, showing that pét-nat can work at scale. The launch helped to move Brit-Nat up the agenda, as it made every supermarket buyer sit up and take notice,” Wildman told
db.
Younger drinkers
With their rainbow of colours and flavours, funky labels, crown caps, and minimum intervention makers, pét-nat has found favour with millennial and Gen Z consumers and is acting as a fun and accessible bridge into the sometimes intimidating world of wine.
Using an old method of sparkling production where the fizz is produced by bottling the wine while it’s still fermenting, pét-nats are lower in alcohol and less effervescent than traditional English sparkling wine and are released onto the market earlier.
The speedy production and quick return on investment is making pét-nat a popular choice for ambitious young winemakers who can’t afford to make traditional
English fizz.
“English sparkling wine is a rich person's game. You have to have a lot of money coming into it. If you’re young and want to get into the industry, you can’t play that game, but you can buy a couple of tonnes of fruit from someone and make a pét-nat,” Wildman said.
While pét-nat will always be a niche proposition, its popularity is growing, with around 45 producers making the fizz in the UK and production hovering around 200 cases a year.
Wildman – who hosts a biannual ‘Brit-Nat’ tasting in London and makes Lost in a Field pét-nat from a clutch of ‘heritage’ varieties sourced from vineyards in Herefordshire, Wiltshire and Kent - believes part of pét-nat’s appeal lies in its ‘counter-culture’ nature.
“Brit-Nat is injecting some much-needed diversity in the wine sector. It’s the opposite of traditional method fizz, as it can be made with any grape, in any colour and a variety of methods. There are no rules. There’s a sense of anarchy and risk involved,” he told
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The sweet spot
Their gentle fizz and lower alcohol levels is helping to move fans of craft beer and kombucha over to the wine category, which, with its falling global sales, is needed more than ever.
Price-wise, English and Welsh pét-nats hit a sweet spot that fills the gap between Prosecco and traditional English sparkling, with bottle prices averaging around £20-£25.
When it comes to grape varieties, anything goes, with some producers favouring the traditional Champagne grapes, and others, like Wildman, working with German cross varieties like Madeline Angevine, Reichensteiner and Schönburger.
He sees diseases-resistant ‘PIWI’ varieties like Solaris, Rondo and Cabernet Noir as having a bright future in homegrown pét-nat.
“PIWIs have an advantage in that they require a lot less chemical spraying, which is a good thing in our climate,” Wildman told
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As for the epicentre of production, Wildman says a small but thriving pét-nat community has emerged on the Herefordshire/Wales border spearheaded by the likes of Whinyard Rocks and Black Mountain Vineyard.
Natural wine
Given their lack of sulphur, pét-nats were something of a Russian roulette purchase in the past, with some ‘gushers’ exploding from being too fizzy, others suffering from the opposite problem of not being fizzy enough, and many having a bretty/mousy character.
Anthony Gopal, head sommelier at Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant KOL in Marylebone, believes the pét-nat category has come of age.
“The natural wine movement has grown up a lot. People aren’t just putting anything out there now - they understand what the market wants,” he told
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Wildman agrees that a leap in quality is helping the pét-nat category to be taken seriously.
“People are achieving great quality in this country with pét-nat, which is giving buyers more confidence in the category. Our cooler climate and the resulting high acid, low pH wines allow for fault-free winemaking that’s harder to achieve in warmer climates,” he said.
While quality is on the rise, Gopal would like to see a bridging of the gap between traditional method English sparkling and pét-nat. “British pet-nats are antithetical to most English sparkling wine. They tend to be made by a one-man band from a small parcel of land where you can see the winery from the other end of the field.
Here to stay
“It bothers me that the UK market is getting divided along those lines, with the ex-private equity people making traditional sparkling in Sussex at one end, and the smaller guys that can’t compete at the other having to go down the radical natural rabbit hole to differentiate themselves,” he said.
While there’s no danger of pét-nat ever usurping traditional English sparkling wine in terms of popularity and production, Wildman believes the wines bring something new and different to the English wine conversation, and that the trend has the legs to go the distance.
“The wines can be found all over the UK now. My debut 2021 vintage of Lost in a Field was on pour from magnum at Where The Light Gets In in Manchester. Brit-Nat has got what English sparkling had a decade ago; a sense of discovery and surprise, which is powerful,” he said.
