Natural petillant wine, or pet-nat, although you may have probably heard of it only recently (if you have at all), is not a new invention, it even finds its roots in the 16th century, in the south-western France. Often, you can easily identify them on the shelf because they are closed with a metal cap, just like beer bottles. Until recently, they were considered easy drinking wines, light and cheerful, slightly cloudy, due to the production process.

Without too many details, the pet-nat is born similar to some frizzantes, but it no longer goes through the filtering process. Basically, before the fermentation is finished, the wine is transferred into bottles, where the carbon dioxide that is still produced until the fermentation is complete remains "captive" and dissolves in the wine.

During the last decade, natural sparkling wines were caught in the wave of sympathy produced by organic and eco wines, and producers were eager to transform them, slowly and subtly, into symbols of their wineries. Today you will often find pet-nats fermented with natural yeasts, respectful to the terroir, often even accompanied by the mention "ecological" or "bio", generally as wines that express their place of birth as correctly and coherently as possible.

In Romania, producers are still oriented towards sparkling wines (traditional or, more often, made using the Charmat method), and sparkling wines are still rare. The limited editions from Agape Arta si Natura are readily sold out, and the two La Sapata pet-nats are rarely found in stores. It is true that the amount of unfiltered sparkling wines and frizzante wines (domestic production) has increased and brut-nature sparkling wines are imported more often, but the pet-nats still have some way to go to win the hearts of consumers.