{"id":2637,"date":"2018-07-07T09:11:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T13:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/?p=2637"},"modified":"2024-04-21T16:56:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T20:56:27","slug":"mcritchie-2017-petillant-naturel-wines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/mcritchie-2017-petillant-naturel-wines\/","title":{"rendered":"McRitchie 2017 P\u00e9tillant Naturel Wines"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently hosted a wine tasting with friends. \u00a0Late last year McRitchie Winery & Ciderworks<\/a>\u00a0released two P\u00e9tillant Naturel wines for the first time. \u00a0We had heard of P\u00e9t Nats, as they’re sometimes called, but we had never tasted one before. \u00a0Curious and big fans of McRitchie, we purchased a bottle of each and decided to share them with friends.<\/p>\n

When we purchased these wines, we were advised to store them upright and serve them very well chilled. \u00a0We were also advised to be very careful when opening these wines and to have something to catch any wine that might come rushing out.<\/p>\n

We reached out to McRitchie for more technical information about the wines. \u00a0The Petit Manseng was harvested at 26\u00b0 Brix on September 7, 2017. \u00a0The Petit Verdot was harvested at 21\u00b0 Brix on September 27, 2017. \u00a0In both cases, the grapes were whole cluster pressed, settled and racked with no filtration or added carbon dioxide. \u00a0Both were bottled with residual sugar. \u00a0The Petit Verdot had skin contact but there was no barrel aging. \u00a0Both wines are off dry to dry with high acidity. \u00a0The Petit Manseng is a bit higher in acidity at 8 grams\/Liter vs 7.8 grams\/Liter for the Petit Verdot. \u00a0Thirty-three cases of the Petit Manseng were produced. \u00a0While forty-five cases of the Petit Verdot were produced. \u00a0The Petit Manseng was bottled on September 30, 2017. \u00a0The Petit Verdot was a little later on October 10, 2017. Both wines were released on November 18, 2017. \u00a0We’ll cover tasting notes later in this post.<\/p>\n

So, just how are P\u00e9t Nats made? \u00a0These wines are naturally sparkling. \u00a0The wine is bottled before the primary fermentation has finished. \u00a0Unlike m\u00e9thode champenoise, no additional yeasts or sugars are added. \u00a0Since fermentation is still on-going, carbon dioxide is produced by the sugars that remain. This method is referred to as m\u00e9thode ancestrale or ancient method. \u00a0It produces a more simple sparkling wine that isn’t filtered. \u00a0Thus the wine is usually cloudy. \u00a0P\u00e9t Nats are also usually bottled with a cap rather than a cork.<\/p>\n

P\u00e9t Nats are believed to have originated in southern France. \u00a0Monks in the early 16th Century near Limoux are thought to be first producers of these type wines. \u00a0(Source – Vine Pair<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Not having tasted these wines before, we also reached out to Patricia McRitchie for suggestions on pairings. \u00a0She suggested pairing the Petit Manseng with salty or creamy foods. \u00a0For the Petit Verdot, she suggested anything that you might pair with a Nouveau or Sparkling Ros\u00e9 such as charcuterie, turkey, dishes with a little heat, or foods with a some creaminess or nuttiness. \u00a0We settled on creamy artichoke dip and brie with the Petit Manseng and spicy cured sausage with the Petit Verdot.<\/p>\n

Now for our tasting notes, we really did enjoy both of these and have since purchased replacement bottles to enjoy them again. \u00a0Both were funky and interesting and a delight to drink.<\/p>\n

2017 Petit Manseng P\u00e9tillant Naturel<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The nose was yeasty but was unmistakably Petit Manseng. \u00a0The palate was also yeasty along with tangy. \u00a0There was a light pineapple and grapefruit undertone.<\/p>\n

The character was wild. \u00a0It paired nicely with the creamy artichoke dip, but with brie, it was a match made in heaven! \u00a0This wine tasted better with food than without.<\/p>\n

The wine was definitely cloudy as you can see from the picture. \u00a0The color reminded us of pineapple juice.<\/p>\n

Sean McRitchie provided his tasting notes too. \u00a0Sean says the flavor profile is honey and acid. \u00a0It reminds him of Mountain Dew. \u00a0The texture is rich with fun bubbles. \u00a0The acid balance contributes to a general rich fruit dimension.<\/p>\n

2017 Petit Verdot P\u00e9tillant Naturel<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This wine’s nose was light strawberry. \u00a0It was dry and sour. \u00a0Some said it reminded them of a sour beer. The palate was funky and gave more strawberry flavors.<\/p>\n

It paired nicely with the cured sausage, but it was even better without food.<\/p>\n

This wine was also cloudy. \u00a0The color was pink but nearly red. \u00a0There was much more sediment with this one than the Petit Manseng.<\/p>\n

Sean McRitchie says this wine has a flavor profile of sour candy and bright cherry. \u00a0It’s foamy with high acid. \u00a0There is some yeast grit as the lees are stirred. \u00a0This is a fun wine that is good with an intense cheese.<\/p>\n

We look forward to opening our second bottles of these wines. \u00a0McRitchie still has a few bottles left, so if you’re interested, you should hurry to the tasting room and pick them up. \u00a0They sell for $25 each. \u00a0Hopefully there will be new vintages coming out later this year from the 2018 harvest!<\/p>\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently hosted a wine tasting with friends. \u00a0Late last year McRitchie Winery & Ciderworks\u00a0released two P\u00e9tillant Naturel wines for the first time. \u00a0We had heard of P\u00e9t Nats, as they’re sometimes called, but we had never tasted one before. \u00a0Curious and big fans of McRitchie, we purchased a bottle of each and decided toContinue reading →<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[379],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-cellar","has-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2637"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2651,"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions\/2651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ncwineguys.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}