FINE SPARKLING CIDER

Raw Sparkling Cider

Pétillant-Naturel (Pét-Nat)

Pétillant Naturel simply means “Naturally Sparkling” in French. So if carbon dioxide has not been added mechanically, then any drink with bubbles can (and often does) call itself a Pét-Nat.

A true Pét-Nat is made using a specific process (méthode ancestrale) which involves using sugar from the first fermentation of the fruit. The method predates containers (barrels) that could hold any significant pressure, so the style is lightly sparkling.

The monks of Blanquette de Limoux, a monastery would harvest their grapes late, and try to keep their wines from fully fermenting before the winter chill set in. In spring and early summer, the ferment would begin again, and a naturally lightly sparkling wine was produced.

We chill our early harvest juice to slow the natural ferment, and then blend our late harvest fruit to deliver just enough sugar to produce a great sparkle.

We trap the freshly picked apple fragrance and tangy green apple tastes.

Entirely natural, with no additives. It doesn’t get any more natural than our Pét-Nat.

Brut-Nature (Fizzy Apple)

We could describe these ciders as Pétillant Naturel, because it is Naturally Sparkling. We don't do that because this is a very different technique to "true" Pét Nat, and originates with the cidermakers of Herefordshire in England.

Around 1644, records show cidermakers taking advantage of newly invented pressure bottles to craft a secondary bottle fermentation. Sugar was added to mature scrumpy, which was then transferred to the pressure bottle and sealed with a tie down cap.

Inside the pressure bottle the yeast eats the sugar, making alcohol and carbon di-oxide bubbles.

By 1650 the English makers of perry (pear wine) and grape wine were sparkling their ferments in bottles for export all over Europe.

The English manufactured pressure bottles became known as the “Verre Anglais” in France, and were imported some 40 years later by Dom Perignon to make his fizzy Champagne.

The yest sediment from the secondary fermentation remains in the base of the bottle, just as it would have been 375 years ago.

Our Brut Nature ferments contains cider and wine making history in every bottle.