In this entry to our 2024 wine writing competition, Eleanor Pattison writes about the moment that made her a wine lover. See our competition guide for the rest of this year's published entries.
Eleanor Pattison writes Eleanor Pattison is a writer and wine lover who is keen to combine these two interests. Currently, her wine learning has come from social media and podcasts, as well as trial and error, rather than any formal learning, though she aspires to take some WSET courses when the opportunity arises
A Pet Nat Epiphany
‘What’s wrong with it?’ my husband asked, frowning at the bottle in my hand.
‘Nothing. It’s supposed to look like that,’ I said, as if I had any idea what I was talking about.
It was a few days before Christmas. Most of the wrapping was done, and the children had finally fallen asleep; time to open the bottle of wine I’d put in the fridge earlier, somewhat apprehensively. This bottle was unlike anything I’d ever drunk before and, to be frank, I agreed with my husband: it looked weird.
Wine has always been my alcoholic drink of choice. I remember being envious at the age of fourteen when my parents started to offer my older brother wine with meals in restaurants. He usually refused, but when it came to my turn a couple of years later I jumped at the chance. Back then I didn’t really know there was any variation in wine other than red or white, but I knew I liked it.
When at university, I remember the delight of formal dinners with complimentary drinks, and always choosing the red wine out of the two that were available on the table. Did this have anything to do with my palate? Of course not. Red was less popular, so I got more glasses than those who chose white. When you’re a student, volume often outweighs other factors.
For a long time, my interest in wine didn’t extend beyond the colour and the price. Eventually I started to pay attention to the grape variety, but I stuck to the safest of safe supermarket wines. It was only once I turned 40 that I began to learn a little more, tempted in by targeted ads for a wine subscription company.
As I experimented with different varieties, I started to learn more about the production of wine and how to taste, spurred on by a free online course that covered the basics. When a mystery wine advent calendar caught my eye, I ordered one, trusting the algorithm would send me something suitable for the festivities. In that box was my first pet nat.
I had never heard of the term ‘petillant naturel’ – it never came up in my GCSE French lessons, more’s the pity – so I dutifully read up on this style of sparkling wine. To those in the know about wine, a pet nat might be nothing special, but to those of us who for a long time knew little beyond Jacob’s Creek and Echo Falls, pet nat wines are a whole new world. The idea of something deliberately funky and cloudy was alien to me, and the description of it on one website as ‘hipster bubbles’ made me doubtful.
This particular wine was the ‘Viaje a Marte’ Pet Nat Blanco 2021 from Dominio de Punctum, one of Spain’s largest producers of organic and biodynamic wines. I opened the bottle and selected my glass (a flute, because I hadn’t yet reached the section of the course about the best style of glass for sparkling wine). From discussions online, I’d heard that pet nats are an acquired taste, and some people can’t stand them. Wondering if I’d wasted my money, I took a sniff. Through my investigations I was starting to improve my tasting skills a little beyond ‘It smells like wine’, but this certainly didn’t smell like any wine I was used to.
I don’t know if it was the first sip that did it for me, or if I needed a couple more, but once I tasted that wine I don’t think I could ever go back to a lack of interest in what I was drinking. The wine itself had a hint of sweetness, some fruitiness and plenty of acidity, but that’s a profile I’d had plenty of times before and have since. I think, in this case, it was the understanding that hit me – the knowledge that wine could be so much more than a £7 Pinot Grigio from Tesco, that there were people out there making wines that were different and interesting. I was desperate to know more, to learn more and to taste more.
I see a lot of wine educators and ‘vinfluencers’ on Instagram who are younger than me, so at times it is intimidating to contemplate embarking on a journey of learning about wine, but I have reminded myself that everyone starts somewhere. I’ve tried plenty of different wines in the time since I opened that bottle, including some other pet nats, and while I can’t say it’s a style that is likely to become my favourite I will always have a place in my heart for the wine that opened my eyes to the sheer wonder of what wine can be.
Image by Constantine Johnny via Getty Images.