Pét-nats are undergoing a renaissance in wine circles. This is likely thanks to their drinkability, freshness and embodiment of carefree “glou glou” culture. Though these funky, fizzy and fermented beverages are most often associated with wine, this method of carbonation can also be used to produce other beverages—including ciders.
These pét-nat ciders, which are made using this natural fermentation process, are also currently on the rise. There’s good reason for the growing attention.
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“I have folks come in looking for something that maybe is a little more rustic or hazy… pét-nats can definitely scratch that itch,” says Olivia Maki, co-owner of Redfield Cider Bar & Bottle Shop in Oakland, California. Wines and ciders made using this method, she notes, are prized for their quaffable qualities and expansive food pairing abilities.
While pét-nat ciders currently only account for around 10% of her shop’s cider portfolio, they’re slowly acquiring a dedicated following. “It’s a small but mighty selection,” Maki says. “They sell really well.” Eleanor Leger, founder and co-owner of Eden Specialty Ciders in Newport, Vermont, agrees, estimating that pét-nat ciders make up around 20% of her operation’s bottled cider options.
Here’s everything you need to know about the growing category, and why cider makers are still having difficulty breaking into the market.
What Is Pét-Nat?
Translated from French as “naturally sparkling,” pétillant naturale (pét-nat) is one of three ways to naturally carbonate wines and ciders. Other options include Charmat (the tank method) and méthode Champenoise, also known as the Champagne or traditional method.
Pét-nats ferment right in their bottles and retain the carbon dioxide emitted during fermentation. These bottlings may or may not be disgorged, which is when bottles are inverted and the residual yeast (known as lees) is expelled to reduce sediment and improve clarity. This is dependent on the maker, but the residual yeast sediment found in many pét-nat bottlings can give complexity and body, Maki says.
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Pét-nat ciders are prized for not just the craftsmanship of its maker, but the bottlings’ youthful taste and juiciness. They should be consumed as fresh as possible, ideally with fresh breads and cheeses, charcuterie, raw oysters or a green salad—perhaps served at a picnic or other laid-back gathering.
It’s this easy-drinking nature that is making these fizzy beverages increasing popular—they appeal to consumers seeking session-able and rustic beverages at an affordable price point. “Pét-nat [ciders] can really fit the bill for that,” Maki promises, estimating a general range of $15 to $25 per bottle for a wide variety of good quality options.
Why Pét-Nat Cider Is Hard to Find
Sometimes referred to as méthode ancestral (French for “ancestral method”), pét-nat ciders have yet to catch up to pét-nat wines in popularity. This is in large part due to disparate regulations that limit cider producers’ abilities to properly market themselves.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees all ciders below 6.9% alcohol-by-volume (abv) but the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) oversees ciders over 7% abv and most wines. According to the TTB, cider is categorized as wine, but cider has much more stringent rules compared to wine.
For example, the TTB’s Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) defines the term “pétillant” as “sparkling light grape wine normally less effervescent than Champagne or other similar sparkling wine.” The TTB’s specific designation of pétillant (thus pétillant naturale and pét-nat) as a grape-based wine leaves apple cider makers scratching their heads.
“It’s very easy for wine to use the terminology, and it’s extremely challenging for cider to do so,” says Michelle McGrath, CEO of the American Cider Association (ACA), an advocacy group lobbying on behalf of the cider industry.
She notes that some cider makers submit a label certification form called the Certificate of Label Approval/Exemption (COLAs) for permission to include the word pét-nat on their labels. However, approval seems to be dispersed arbitrarily, she notes. Others try to find workarounds, using clues like “made using the ancestral method” or “sparkling” on labels to hint at the contents.
But for consumers specifically looking for pét-nat ciders, the lack of obvious and consistent signage can make their search difficult. That barrier holds cider, and especially pét-nat cider, back, says McGrath.
“Having the ability to label ciders made with the pétillant naturale process would be huge, because pét-nats are obviously trending,” she says. “That consumer base who’s interested in pét-nats would definitely be buying pét-nat ciders if it was clearly labeled and easy to market… there’s no reason for it to not be open to all wines.”
Despite cider’s challenges—which the ACA hopes lawmakers will change—plenty of American artisanal cider producers have embraced the pét-nat process into their portfolios, even as a small portion of their output.
Producers Making Pét-Nat Ciders
Eve’s Cidery
“Pét-nat is unpredictable,” explains Autumn Stoscheck, cider maker and orchardist at Eve’s Cidery in Van Etten, New York. But that’s part of the appeal of her ciders—they’ll never taste quite the same as the year before.
Her pét-nats are “juicy and gulpable,” and she prioritizes using cider apples “that are fresh and fruity with soft tannins, and get a lot of charm and character from their aromatics.” While cider can—and should—be enjoyed all year round, she says spring is an especially good season to crack open a bottle. Try their biannual Tydeman’s Early, as a particularly delightful pick.
South Hill Cider
Don’t look for the label pét-nat on South Hill’s labels. This Ithaca, New York-based cider maker relies on the phrase “ancestral method” to indicate what’s in each bottle. Even as one of the most respected small cider makers in the U.S., its harvest-driven ciders are some of the most affordable on the market, ranging from $12 to $28 for most 750 ml bottles.
In his February 2023 newsletter, owner and cider makes Steve Selin detailed how much time is required to create a great pét-nat cider. And though it may take three to six months for the fermentation to finish, these ciders are worth the wait. The 2019 Farmhouse or the 2021 Sunlight Transformed Pét-Nat are personal favorites.
durham cider + wine co.
Owner and cidermaker Rob Durham doesn’t make typical wines or ciders. His concoctions eschew easy definition and subvert expectations, and pét-nat’s inherent tendency towards unpredictability plays perfectly into his ethos.
“A lot of the techniques that we use aren’t very common outside of traditional winemaking, such as long macerations before pressing, [the] pét-nat style of carbonation, talking about vintage dates and the use of glass and clay as fermentation vessels,” he says. “As of 2020, we don’t add or take away anything along the way—it’s just raw and uncut organically grown fruit that is juiced and fermented naturally.”
It’s difficult to gauge how many of his ciders are pét-nats—or even true ciders, for that matter. But after tasting “What’s Your 20?,” a 2019 pét-nat blend made with Newtown Pippin and Ashmead’s Kernel, I have to agree with his assessment that it’s “a straight-up tasty beverage.”
Tilted Shed Ciderworks
Located in the heart of Sonoma County, California, Tilted Shed Ciderworks focuses on producing low-intervention, small-batch ciders driven by the terroir of northern California. Its farm produces over 100 varieties of apples and pears, all pressed in season for fresh, but unpredictable, ciders and coferments that reflect the bounty of nature. Tilted Shed’s pét-nats include coferments like their plum-apple wine, as well as single-variety ciders like 2022 Pink Pearl, which uses native yeast and locally grown Pink Pearl apples.
Like Leger and Stoscheck, Tilted Shed co-founder Ellen Cavalli was named “one of seven women moving American cider forward” in 2019, thanks to her work in and out of the orchard. She launched Malus, a quarterly print cider zine, in 2018, and while she stepped down as editor in December 2019, Cavalli continues to proselytize the gospel of cider through Tilted Shed’s products.
Published: November 28, 2023
