I only
encountered the liveliness of pétillant
in wines when I started drinking the wines that are traditionally made. It is even easier to appreciate when a vigneron, like Thierry Puzelat, guided
me through a tasting.
Pétillant literally means sparkling. In the context of still wines though, it
means a little tingling sensation in wines from naturally occurring carbon
dioxide, which is a by-product of fermentation.
Traditionally, the pétillant
is kept (i.e. wines are not de-gassed completely) intentionally because carbon
dioxide is a natural preserver. If wines
are completely de-gassed, which is the case for about 99.9% plus of wines
nowadays, additional sulfur would have to be used.
For the
uninitiated, the pétillant taste can
lead to falsely believing the wine is still fermenting. For the traditionally made wines, pétillant gives that lovely liveliness. If
you do not like pétillant, decant the
wine for about ½ hour and all that beautiful pétillant taste will be gone.
The pétillant is only apparent in young bottled
wines. After a year or so in bottle, the
pétillant fades. For me, the pétillant stage of young wine is ephemeral and attractive. When Le Clos du Tue-Boeuf ‘La Butte’ Gamay 2010 arrived on our
shores, the wine had that striking pétillant. After a few months, the wine has lost much of
pétillant but has kept that stunning
fragrance and freshness.
You can listen
directly from the respected Burgundy vigneron Jean-Marie Fourrier in this podcast about pétillant. Jean-Marie rhetorically asks: “Why replace the gift of natural preserver
of carbon dioxide with chemical sulfur?”
If you are lucky enough to come across a bottle of Jean-Marie Fourrier wines,
I urge to buy it.
I am at a point
now where when I try young wine and taste zero pétillant, I ask why the vigneron
chose to de-gas the natural preserver gift of carbon dioxide and replace it
with abrasive sulfur.
