It’s Friday, have a drink
A fizzy wine that’s fit for both moms and millennials
Welcome to our column where we look at what’s good to drink around Shanghai. And because it’s Friday. And also because Mother’s Day is coming and you have no idea what to get her so you need a drink to think. Whatever, we just want some booze. This week: Ngeringa 2017 Uncultured Pet Nat.
Your mother spent many mornings of your first nine months throwing up in the toilet. She then put up with your stupid shit for the next 18 years. Now, it’s Mother’s Day on May 13, and she deserves a goddamn drink. Treat her right by pouring her a glass, no, a bottle of this Ngeringa pet nat, an Australian sparkling wine that’s trendy enough to appease your cynical hipster snottiness yet easy enough for any Mom to enjoy.
Pét Nat is short for pétillant naturel, or French for naturally sparkling. It’s an ancient way of making bubbly by bottling still-fermenting wine without extra yeasts or sugars, unlike champagne. That’s why pét nat is also called méthode ancestrale (ancestral method) and most bottles are sealed with a crown cap. Essentially, it’s farmhouse fizz.
The rustic nature of pét nat lends itself well to minimal-intervention winemakers such as Erinn and Janet Klein at Ngeringa. The Kleins work their land in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia biodynamically; they farm according to the seasons, avoid using synthetic chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers, and plant different crops to create sustainable and biologically diverse vineyards.
Ngeringa makes their pét nat by mixing seven grape varieties: the whites of viognier, chardonnay, pinot gris, gewürztraminer, and pink semillon, and the reds of syrah and pinot noir. Last year saw lots of late season rain that caused the grapes to ripen longer, but the extended period concentrated their flavors and smoothened the tannins. During harvest, the berries were picked separately, fermented with indigenous yeast, then blended together before bottling.
You don’t need a corkscrew to crack this one, just a bottle opener or the edge of a counter will do, and you’re smacked with a rush of grapefruit, cream, and cassis when the top comes off. It tastes like eating raspberry jam and yogurt on sourdough while drinking soda water together. Will you like it? Yes. Will Mom? Definitely, especially when you share a bottle or two with her.
Available from Cellar Door Wines.
