Posts made in July, 2016


Pét Nat. It is short for pétillant naturel (naturally sparkling), a particular type of sparkling wine. I’ve only come across it in the last year or so, although I’ve found references on the web going back a few years earlier. It doesn’t seem to generate much coverage in the press, except for noting it’s a new trend, and apparently big with hipsters. But what is it? Pét Nat is wine that finishes fermenting in the bottle. It undergoes...

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Readers of this blog, and those who have heard me speak at conferences, will know that my relationship with the language wine people use is complicated. There are often reasons for the words we use, but those reasons are not always self-evident. Nor do we do a very good job of making this known, and explaining what those words are intended to convey. In many ways, and many times, wine language is coterminous with, but not equal to,...

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