Tillingham PN18 - English Pét Nat

I was intrigued to try this wine which seemed to represent quite a departure from the usual style of English sparkling wine. It's a rosé pétillant naturel (AKA pét nat), made from a blend of grapes with Ortega being the biggest constituent. It's produced according to the "ancestral method" rather than the "traditional method" used for nearly all English sparkling wine, as well as in Champagne. In this older and simpler method of sparkling wine production, rather than a distinct secondary fermentation in bottle, the wines are bottled before the primary fermentation has completed. Some carbon dioxide is still released by the tail end of this fermentation, and trapped in the bottle, but this tends to lead to looser, larger bubbles than a traditional method sparkling wine. 

The PN18 is left undisgorged: the lees are still present.

There's also clearly a lot less aging involved, given this was made from grapes only harvested 6 months or so ago. That made this the first wine for me from the epic 2018 English harvest, whereas we're unlikely to see any traditional method ESW from 2018 until at least 2020.

Tillingham's tasting notes are "aromas of hedgerow fruits and rhubarb with a cream soda and autolytic nose", and for once I actually think I entirely agree with that.

I found this very interesting from an educational point of view - having the lees still present gave a very vivid demonstration of what is meant when tasting notes hint at "autolytic character". However I found those sour, bitter yeasty notes really overwhelming here. It was slightly reminiscent of farmhouse ciders - which I actually love - but seemingly I only enjoy that sort of rustic quality in cider.

Also a bit reminiscent of Torbolino in Venice, given the youth of the wine, the slightly rough and ready feel, and that gentle effervescence. If I'm honest I couldn't say I particularly love torbolino for the wine itself - but it's something about the time and place (a traditional thing to have in Venice in October, accompanied with chestnuts). Torbolino is one of those wines you discover on holiday which, if you brought a bottle back and tried it again a few weeks later, you would wonder what all the fuss was about.

Assuming Tillingham's PN18 is representative of the pétillant naturel style then I think it's just not a style of wine for me! I think this is only the second pet nat I've had, and the previous one didn't really appeal either. They do definitely have a following though.

As an aside, having bought an undisgorged wine, I briefly entertained the notion of trying to riddle and disgorge it myself at home just for fun. No I don't happen to have a bath of frozen glycerine at minus 28 degrees at home to freeze the neck in - there is apparently a less technologically advanced, but more skilled method of disgorgement which is called "a la volée" with which I was briefly fascinated, as it seemed like a cousin of sabrage. It involves a special disgorging tool (which looks uncannily like a bottle opener, but being a piece of wine industry apparatus obviously costs 10x what it reasonably should), and a quick flick of the wrist - the bottle starts pointing downwards but is turned upright whilst opening, for obvious reasons. The idea being the lees and the absolute minimum of wine spray out, but the rest remains in the bottle. Would be fun to try at some point.