International Popular Wine Pet-Nat 2020

This pet-nat comes from 100% Verdelho grown in Contra Costa County, produced and bottled by Purity Wine under winemaker Noel Diaz at 1401 Marina Way South in Richmond, California. Grapes were harvested in the first week of August 2020 and slowly pressed the following day. Fermentation proceeded with native yeasts, taking the wine through a reductive, funky phase before settling into a flinty earthiness with a lush, pineapple-forward mouthfeel.

The wine was finished in the traditional pétillant naturel method: bottled before fermentation completed so that residual CO2 creates a gentle sparkle in the bottle. Post-disgorgement, a small addition of Cinsault was blended in to add tension and structural contrast to the round, tropical Verdelho base. Alcohol sits at 11% and the wine contains only naturally occurring sulfites — no SO2 was added.

Contra Costa County sits directly east of San Francisco Bay on deep, free-draining Delhi sandy loam soils. These soils allowed vines to survive the phylloxera epidemic, and many plantings in the region remain own-rooted and dry-farmed. Afternoon winds off the Bay moderate the otherwise hot inland climate, preserving acidity in the grapes through harvest. Verdelho is a minority variety in the county but has shown an affinity for the sandy, warm-to-hot conditions.