Pet’Nat’ apoco-lypto!
Roland! Purveyor of magic, prophet out of element and outside of time . . .
I had a woman come into the shop, who joined the list recently and has received only one or two write-ups since joining. She seemed disappointed and a bit concerned that maybe I’d removed her from the list. So I’d like to address these fewer write-ups and apologize for not being more prolific. It’s been difficult as of late, to be inspired . . . maybe a bit of Dark Night of The Soul as it were? I am authentic in my intentions and in these write-ups and in so being, if things are not flowing, I have a hard time faking it. No faking! I like to think there is connection in these writings. I imagine while I write, opening a little window up to you, and i imagine connection with you! Honestly, I think about why I do what I do, and lately, I’m not sure. I didn’t start Cantina Sauvage to be another shop, or wine bar. I started it to create community. Wine, to me is a wonderful way of doing so, and the medium of wine making, is to me, an art unto itself, as much as writing, painting, performing…etc…The bottles I put on my shelves, are, without exception wines that have a point of view. BUT! Persephone has been wonderfully enriching, in a way I haven’e felt since having Bar Ferd’nand. And it makes me consider opening a place of my own again. You can see that I’m in a bit of a quandary, yes? That is also why the write-ups have been fewer.
This edition is about Pet’Nats’ for the end of time . . . Why not?! As I wrote above, I’ve been a little bit down as of late…not because I feel like it’s the apocalypse (and let me say right now, I don’t believe in that kind of phraseology) . . . What is it? I’m not sure. If you know me, you know I’m not a down kind of person . . . you will not find my husk hanging from the rafters anytime soon because, I’M AN OPTIMIST! and not like some Panglossian optimist. No! I still see immense beauty in this world . . . there is still beauty here . . . bare with me while I move into the write-up of the wines; that will come below. Skip over this rant, if you just want the wines, but let me say this: it’s all the same! the wine, the Optimists, The Apocalypse-ists . . . it’s all one . . . this is not an AI write-up but if it were- the commands I’d put in might look something like this: please provide a prose/poem for the end-of-time, written by an optimist who is trying to come to grips with their mortality and their relevance in the dwindling light of a civilization built on matchsticks dangling over the hot lava of the APOCALYPSE! yo Yo YO!
And in the end, it’s only wine! It’s just wine! Let’s get on with it . . .
THE WINES!
Three Pet’Nats for you! Here is the bit o’ education part to the write-up. You may ask yourself, what is a Pet’Nat’? It is ubiquitous these days, isn’t it? One sees it all over the place! It is a naturally sparkling wine! Simply put, it is a wine that is bottled and sealed, only partially fermented, and finishes fermentation in such a way that the resultant CO2, a bi-product of the fermentation process, is trapped and ends up integrating with the wine, making it sparkle! BOOM! Simple as that, yes? Well, yes and no because wine finishing fermentation in bottle can be volatile and can blow up in you face, if it is still fermenting when you open it. It takes a deft touch to know just how much must you need and want to have in the bottle to finish fermentation. And then there is a question of dry-ness. Do you want it dry? and if you want to retain some sweetness, how do you stop the fermentation so that it retains some residual sugar? You have to somehow arrest the fermentation... does that mean, you have to kill off the remaining yeast cells so they don’t continue to provide food for the alcoholic fermentation? It’s tricky! Here are three examples of some of the deftest of touch- each one unique and brilliant in its own way and each, brilliantly delicious!
1. Quarticello Ferrando, Rosato Lambrusco del Emilia $27- Montecchio Emilia is where Roberto Maestri farms his 8 hectares of vines. Salamino is the varietal that comprises the Ferrando, rosato style dry Lambrusco, bordering on light red. It is actually the lightest in the context of these three. Slightly savory and herbal. I’ve carried this wine for several years and it is always different…every vintage! Some years it is actually pale and creamy, very pretty, with strawberry. This vintage, by comparison, is peppery with a bit of salinity! Couldn’t be more different! Seems like a stylistic choice to me… maybe less time on lees, but more skin extract. Whatever the how, it is a beautiful springtime wine that I would drink in sunshine, with a bunch of charcuterie and cheese.
2. Kobal Bajta Pet’ Nat’ Bianco, Chardonnay & Welschriesling, Stajerska $30- This is a truly dynamic, beautiful wine that I LOVE! A blend of half Chardonnay, half Welschriesling to give it amazing perfume! Totally unfiltered and cloudy with a rich haze like an ice crystal rings around the sun, portending great change. The Kobal winery is in the Slovenian sub-zone of Haloze in Stajerska (Styria) which it shares across the border with Austria. The winery is housed on an estate that has wine traditions and has been planted to vines for over two thousand years; and could be one of the oldest in Europe. Bojan Kobal is owner/winemaker; passionate about what he does, paying meticulous attention to every fermentation, so much so, that he keeps his vessels on wheels, moving them to optimum positions around the winery, as warmth or coolness dictates.
3. Achillée, Quetsches Alors! Alsace Plum Pet’Nat’ $27- Can we talk about amazing? Achillée is the french word for Yarrow; Yarrow is an absorber of nutrients and a radiator of energy, that is vital, according to Rudolph Steiner, father of the philosophy of Biodynamics. This is amazing . . . and you need to think here, about wine that stretches definitions of what we consider wine to be. This sparkling bottle of UMAME (yes)! bounces around the corners of your imagination ricocheting off your walls of perception. It is vinified with Quetsche Plums that have been foot trodden. A second fermentation is sparked by the addition of Riesling! It tastes like magic, seriously! Is it wine, is it cider, is it a Lambic? Yes! This is a particularly dynamic bottle and you are cautioned to chill it way down and open over the sink with a glass in hand, to capture the goodness that may bubble forth.
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6 bottle minimum outside Seattle!
Thanks for reading!
Marc