Pet Nat Oh When the Saints – 2022

Heinrich Pet Nat Oh when the Saints from Sankt Laurent

Pet Nat Oh when the Saints by Gernot Heinrich is the brass-colored sparkler of the 2022 vintage, pressed from the red Sankt Laurent variety. Not a sparkling wine from a large tank, but a natural wine that owes its carbonation solely to its own fermentation, completed in the bottle.

Pet Nat Oh when the Saints is the sparkling natural wine from the Gernot Heinrich winery in Gols, in Austria's Burgenland region. It is grown in the Rosenberg vineyard, an east-facing slope near Breitenbrunn. The mica schist there gives the Sankt Laurent grapes a taut character, which this vintage expresses particularly clearly. With 10.0 percent alcohol, it remains decidedly light.

Brass-colored, taut and yeasty

This Blanc de Noir appears brass-colored in the glass, a hue derived from the red grape skins that reveals its dark origins. A light wine is made from red grapes here because the skins are separated from the must immediately.

On the nose, the house style repeats itself with quince, Nashi pear, and mandarin peel, complemented by white tea and hay flowers. The vintage is tauter than the previous one, which is due to the higher acidity and the early harvest, which began as early as the end of August.

In the mouth, it remains juicy and effervescent; the tannins feel soft, and the yeast has left behind a creaminess that fills out the lean body. Those looking for low alcohol in their glass who still want to drink wine will find here one of the rare cases where the two go hand in hand. The perlage is finer than the simple production method might suggest.

Méthode ancestrale and the yeast sediment

Pétillant Naturel is the name of the old production method in which fermenting must is bottled and immediately sealed tightly. It originated in France long before the invention of modern sparkling wine production.

Unlike sparkling wine (Sekt), there is no second fermentation in the cellar here, only the first, which finishes in the bottle. The resulting carbon dioxide cannot escape and binds to form a fine perlage, while a yeast sediment forms at the bottom. The remaining sugar in the must is the sole source of this carbonation.

Traditionally, this sediment remained in the bottle and made the wine cloudy; here, however, it is disgorged starting in June 2023, so the yeast is removed and the sparkler enters the glass clear. The must was bottled for this in early October 2022, following three weeks in a steel tank and cooling that allowed the lees to settle beforehand.

What carries the sparkle

Tempura and sushi pair perfectly with this carbonation because the bubbles clear away the frying fat and the acidity keeps the seasoned rice bright.

Pickled vegetables from a jar are on the same wavelength, as two acids complement rather than fight each other here. Even a bowl of miso soup goes surprisingly well with this wine. Serve well-chilled, and at this alcohol level, 750 milliliters will last longer into the evening than usual. It is also a New Year's Eve wine, without all the usual pomp.

The older Pet Nat from the 2021 vintage comes from the same vineyard but is rounder and a bit more powerful. You can find more sparkling bottles in our sparkling wine selection, and the rest of the range is available at the Gernot Heinrich winery.

Pet Nat – a semi-sparkling wine and its values

• Origin: Sparkling wine from Austria
• Grape variety: Sankt Laurent
• 10.0% vol. alcohol
• 7.7 g/l acidity
• 5.2 g/l residual sugar

Organic inspection body AT-BIO-402 – Austrian Agriculture