Domaine Geschickt Pet-Nat 2021

The story starts with Pinot Auxerrois, Riesling and Muscat d’Alsace being handpicked from the Geschickt vineyards in a ratio of 50%, 35% and 15%. The Muscat was macerated for 2 weeks as Arnaud believes that this introduces more yeast and beneficial bacteria into the juice which leads to stronger fermentation than if all the grapes were direct pressed.

This is a common technique that they now use across most of their wines although the percentage of grapes that are macerated for a given cuvée may vary down to 10%.

There are no added sulphites in this wine and the alcohol level is an appealing 12.5%.

And, of course, the best thing is that it is a pet nat. We have been importing pet nats for a long time and they have become incredibly popular in Australia.

So the grapes for this one were direct pressed and the juice was then fermented in a tank. When the amount of residual sugar had reduced to a safe level (usually around 20 grams per litre), the fermenting wine was bottled. This year, the fermentation stopped with 3 grams of residual sugar remaining. This is a perfect amount of residual sugar to balance the acidity of the grapes and to provide the perfect balance for this to be a desirable aperitif.

The wine was disgorged to remove most of the yeast sediment that is deposited in the bottle.

It is fresh, it is vibrant, it is almost dry, it has lots of energy, it has fine bubbles and it is very, very tasty.'

- Living Wines