Pet Nat Oh When The Saints – 2021

Pet Nat Oh when the Saints from Weingut Heinrich

Pet Nat Oh when the Saints by Gernot Heinrich is a bottle-fermented Blanc de Noir made from red Saint Laurent grapes. This is not a sparkling wine created through a second fermentation, but a bubbly whose primary fermentation only finishes once the bottle is already sealed.

Pet Nat Oh when the Saints is the sparkling natural wine from the Gernot Heinrich winery in Gols, Burgenland, Austria, pressed from pure Saint Laurent. The 2021 vintage grapes come from an east-facing slope of the Rosenberg site in Breitenbrunn am Leithagebirge, characterized by mica schist soil. With 11.0 percent alcohol, it remains pleasantly restrained.

Quince, Nashi, and white tea

Quince, Nashi pear, and mandarin peel rise from the glass, with notes of white tea and dried hay flowers layered over the fine perlage. The result is called Blanc de Noir because a red grape produces a light-colored wine here.

On the palate, it bubbles up juicily, carried by a crisp spine of acidity that keeps it upright, while gentle tannins from the red skins provide structure. The creaminess comes from the lees it rested on, making this bubbly more of a wine than a simple refreshment. This vintage seems rounder than the one that follows, which is due to its slightly milder acidity.

It owes its name to the grape variety, as Saint Laurent becomes "Saint" in English, which in turn leads to that song everyone can hum along to anyway. At the 2022 Vinaria tasting, this Pet Nat came out on top against the rest of the Austrian competition. The label by Viennese artist Olaf Osten features the jazz musician Mats Gustafsson.

Direct pressing and bottle fermentation

The harvest takes place by hand in mid-September, and the red grapes then go directly into the press without any detour through the mash.

The must is cooled so that sediment can settle before spontaneous fermentation begins. After three weeks in a steel tank, the still-fermenting must is bottled in early October 2021, where it continues to work and creates its own perlage.

The sugar remaining in the must at the time of bottling provides the carbon dioxide; a second fermentation, as used for traditional sparkling wine, is never employed here. Because the variety ripens early and has a low must weight of around 16 degrees KMW, the final alcohol remains restrained. The addition of liqueur or sugar is also completely omitted. The wine was disgorged starting in March 2022, meaning the bottle was cleared of its yeast deposit.

What this perlage pairs well with

Oysters and smoked trout find the counterpoint they need in this perlage, as the carbonation and acidity work together to break through the saltiness.

Potato chips from the bag work surprisingly well, as the fizz reliably clears away the grease. Deep-fried fish in beer batter also stands up well to this sparkle. Serve well-chilled, and open the closure slowly so that half of the 750 milliliters doesn't end up on the table.

To see how the same hillside sounds one year later, check out the 2022 vintage Pet Nat, which turns out leaner and tighter. You can find more sparkling bottles in our Sparkling Wine selection, and if you would like to browse more broadly, your path leads to the Drink section.

Pet Nat – a semi-sparkling wine and its stats

• Origin: Sparkling wine from Austria
• Grape variety: Saint Laurent
• 11.0% vol. alcohol
• 6.3 g/l acidity
• 7.9 g/l residual sugar

Organic control body AT-BIO-402 – Austrian Agriculture