Vin de Garage “Pétillant Naturel”

Not champagne, not prosecco, not cider, but with elements of each, this wine is bottle fermented without the addition of sugar, by bottling the wine during primary fermentation.

Nerve-racking, this method means picking the perfect time to bottle, aiming at about 15 grams per litre of natural grape sugars, at bottling.

The fruit was 100% home grown, organic chardonnay, picked crisp and green, immediately pressed and hyperoxidised with active solids maceration in steel tank, prior to racking and inoculation with a house yeast provided by the skin contact chardonnay which was already 3 days into ferment by this stage.

Once fermentation kicked off the ferment was chilled to keep it as long, slow and controlled as possible, not killing the yeast but aiming to have as much of it settle in the bottom of the tank as possible before bottling into sparkling wine bottles directly from the fermentation tank.

The wine continued to ferment in the bottle and was left “on lees” (dead yeast) for 3 months, before the bottles we “riddled” to get the lees to settle into the top of the bottle. Another 2 months, and the wine was “disgorged” (removing the lees) and labeled.

We are very pleased with this wine – it is vibrant, fruity, spritzy, and low alcohol.

No sulfites, added yeast, fining agents or any other additives were used from harvest to the finished product.

Vintage: 2021
Production: 70 doz
Bottled: August 2021
Alcohol: 10%
Blend: Chardonnay
Sulfites: Zero
Yeast: Wild
Maturation: Matured in bottle
Fining: No
Filtration: No
Label art: Georgie Statham
Winemaker: Sam Statham