n.v. Domaine Dame Jeanne “Champêtre” Pét-Nat, Molesme, Burgundy, France.
One of my favorite new sparklers, is this Domaine Dame Jeanne “Champêtre” Pét-Nat which is from the northern reaches of Burgundy and made from Pinot Noir and has a Rosé feel and look in the glass and shows off an elegant yeasty character and pretty strawberry, sour cherry, rosewater, bread dough, hazelnut, fine mineral notes and lively ruby citrus notes. The mousse is quite vigorous and beads beautifully with a luxurious creamy quality, while remaining fresh, making for a top-notch Pét-Nat that drinking-wise puts it much closer to Champagne in style. This unique and delicious bubbly saw a vinification of 100% Pinot Noir that was whole cluster direct pressed, then fermented in stainless steel, and finished in bottle. The aging here was close to 12 months on the lees (yeast) before its disgorgement and the finished wine is close to Brut level dryness and just a little more fruit expressive than a Champagne, which is not a complaint in any way, Im love this stuff. Pét-nat or pétillant naturel is a sparkling wine that is bottled before it has finished fermenting and the remaining sugar ferments in the bottle and the gas can’t escape, so the bubbles make themselves. The technique is also called the ancestral method, and predates the more famous Methode Champenoise perfected by the famed Dom Perignon.
The Domaine Dame Jeanne “Champêtre” Pét-Nat is an all natural sparkling wine made by Jeanne Piollot and Gennaro de Miccoli at their micro-domaine in Molesme, Burgundy, which is located just across the border from the Aube region of Champagne. Jeanne Piollot who grew up at the southern edge of Champagne in the Aube, closer to Burgundy than to the Côte des Blancs or Reims, is working side by side out of the same domaine,as her parents. They themselves have created two separate ranges of Champagnes, one is Piollot Père et Fille, which comes from vineyards on her father’s side, and the other, Marie Courtin, that has become a cult wine in the States, which comes from her mother’s family vineyards. The vineyards of Molesme are well known for producing excellent sparkling wines, as they are located so close to the border of Champagne, and have distinctive Oxfordian red marl (limestone) soils, which adds to the complexity and depth found in the wines. Jeanne and Gennaro followed similar farming practices, as in Champagne, used by their family for decades, abstaining from any herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic chemicals, with 100% organic grapes. Again, I really enjoyed this fabulous sparkler and can easily see myself having many more bottles of this Pét-Nat in the future, and I highly recommend it to my grower-producer Champagne enthusiast friends.
($46 Est.) 93 Points, grapeive