'PET NAT'

Pét-Nat (pétillant naturel) or Methode Ancestrale: both the newest and ‘coolest’ sparkling wine and the ancestor of all bubbles. It predates the champagne method by centuries. It’s the perfect summer drink as it is almost a universal food wine yet moreish on its own. We are delighted to feature it on our wine list and in our shops.
Like any wine, ‘natural’ or other, Pet-Nat can be made with skill and intention or rather indifferently. The latter approach giving it its reputation in some corners as the wine production method of ‘the inexperienced chancer’ used to produce ‘hipster bubbles’. 
We have chosen a very special Negrette grape based Pét-Nat Rosé, Le Roc Ambulle, from our old friends Jean-Luc Ribes and his family at Châteaux Le Roc in Côtes de Frontonnais just north of Toulouse. It is fruity, complex, well balanced and crucially tastes of the grape and the land from which it is made. A true Château Le Roc wine.
LA FROMAGERIE has worked with Château Le Roc since the early 1990s when this wine region was a relative unknown in the UK. This is over 10 years before the region gained AOC status. They produce two of LA FROMAGERIE’S own label wines , a white and red. Moreover, it seemed natural for us to choose our first ‘Methode Ancestrale’ from the South West of France since it sits so well with the great cheese of this collection of regions. The area’s wine production dates back to Roman times when Gascony and its neighbours produced the greatest Northern European wines of the era and are considered the birthplace of Methode Ancestrale itself!