La Sapata Feteasca Regala Petiant 2022 (ECO) 75 cl.

This charmer of a PetNat is made from the local grape variety Feteasca Regala. Feteasca Regala literally means The Royal Virgin, and it is one of Romania’s prides, which the Romanians expect will help put the country on the wine world map again. PetNat is the type of wine and is an abbreviation of the French words Petillant Naturel. It translates into Danish as Naturally Sparkling. Explanation follows below. 2000 bottles of this wine are made annually.

PetNat can be made in two ways; One is that the alcoholic fermentation is interrupted by bottling the wine and closing the bottle with a capsule that provides a sufficiently tight seal. This causes the fermentation to produce carbon dioxide instead of alcohol, and the rest of the sugar in the fermenting wine thus turns into fizz instead of alcohol. There is no sugar left and the wine is dry. The second method is that you take a small amount of your grape must from the wine aside before the fermentation starts and save it until your wine has finished fermenting, all the sugar has turned to alcohol and the wine has become dry. Next, the wine is bottled together with a small amount of the unfermented grape must and the bottle is closed with a capsule. In the bottle, this must ferments to carbon dioxide and the wine becomes lightly sparkling to the degree the winegrower desires. This wine is made by the second of the methods mentioned. After both methods, the wine ends up with some yeast residue in the bottle. It is completely normal and to be expected, it has to be there, it cannot be avoided. This makes PetNat a very interesting type of wine, as you get the young, fresh fruit from a new, young wine at the same time and you get complexity from the aging with the yeast that continuously takes place in the bottle. It is simply wonderful, there is great drinking pleasure here, lots of charm and immediacy and at the same time complexity, should you feel like geeking out over the wine. Enjoy!

Colour: Straw yellow with green reflections
Aroma: Intense aroma with an emphasis on the green, fresh fruit such as grapefruit, green apples, gooseberries and slightly more ripe fruit notes of peach and only-almost-ripe green melon and papaya. In addition, notes of yeast and freshly baked bread.
Tasting notes: Medium-bodied wine with gentle effervescence. Finishes juicy and you immediately want the next mouthful. There is again an emphasis on the fresh, green fruit notes and the bread notes complement it nicely. An unpretentious charmer with real complexity.

Serving suggestions: Serve chilled as an aperitif or with lighter dishes with e.g. fish and shellfish or lighter cheeses

La Sapata Crama Delta Dunarii is located in the Danube Delta in the eastern part of Romania. The delta flows into the Black Sea to the east, and to the north the area shares a border with Ukraine. The climate in the Danube Delta is characterized by cold winters and hot, dry summers. Romania has a long tradition of wine production, and here you can find both well-known, international varieties such as riesling and merlot, and local specialties such as babeasca neagra, feteasca neagra, feteasca regala and a number of other hard-to-pronounce (but excellent) grapes.

La Sapata cultivates its approximately 20 hectares organically and with respect for the nature around the fields, but they also have a goal of social sustainability. In recent decades, the Romanian rural areas have been gradually depopulated as more young people travel to the cities, and La Sapata therefore works with an “ethical commitment” to curb the large emigration by creating jobs for the local population in the rural areas.