Pét-nat rosé (short for pétillant naturel, meaning "naturally sparkling" in French) is a naturally sparkling pink wine made using the ancient méthode ancestrale (ancestral method). Unlike Champagne—which has a secondary fermentation in the bottle with added sugar and yeast—a pét-nat is bottled while still actively fermenting which makes it a natural “living” wine. Natural sugars continue to ferment inside the sealed bottle, trapping carbon dioxide and creating a gentle, bubbly fizz. Pét-nat is typically unfiltered, often looking slightly cloudy or hazy from leftover natural yeast sediment (lees).
Story: Susie Davidson Powell
Location: Familiar Creature, Saratoga Springs
THE MOOD: Casual, dinner with friends.
THE PICK: Pétillant Natural Rosé “Éxilé”, Jousset — 2025
THE PRICE: $28 in stores
THE BACKSTORY: A Pét Nat made from 40-year old Gamay vines planted in clay and chalk soils and fermented in older, large barrels and finished in bottle. Lise, a veteran in the Paris and London hospitality industry, and her husband Bertrand Jousset, who transitioned into viticulture after a six-year career in the military, moved to Touraine, in the Loire Valley, in 2003 attracted by the reasonable cost of land. They started out renting small, old-vine parcels in 2003 before launching their Jousset estate in 2004 and purchasing their land in 2011. They are prominent in the natural wine movement and well-known for strict organic farming, minimal-intervention "living wines," and their popular Exilé négoce project, launched to keep the winery afloat after some devastating spring frosts.
WHY THIS ONE? “Éxilé is a special wine for me because it really transcends the Pét Nat category and simply exists as delicious wine. It’s full of strawberry cream, delicate florals, and a luscious texture that’s super refreshing. I’m over Pét Nat being funky for the sake of funk… It’s awesome to find one that shows just how beautiful Pét Nat can be when extra care is put into it. Lise and Bertrand knocked it out of the park with this one.” — MM
TASTING NOTES: It features bright notes of crushed raspberries, tart strawberries, cherry yogurt, light floral notes, and a crisp, zippy acidity of citrus and very slight salty minerality. It leans dry to slightly off-dry depending on the vintage and incredibly food-friendly.
WHAT TO PAIR: “This wine loves to paired with soft cheese, charcuterie, fried foods, or light seafood to cleanse your palette between bites.” — MM
This week’s wine rec is from Miles Merton, Wine Director, Familiar Creature Bar, Saratoga, N.Y.
Read our tastemaker interview with Miles here.