A Pét-Nat by Any Other Name

It was long past midnight, yet I still needed a shoehorn to get into the Angers wine bar Le Cercle Rouge. I carved a few inches out at the bar and started slinging the gossip with my new Tasmanian friends. At this hour, a Pét-Nat (short for pétillant-naturel) was the only thing that could work. Champagne would have been way too ponderous. Still wine would be too… still. We chose the Capriades: strawberry, not quite sweet, sociable, vintage-dated adult soda that did quite the tongue dance. If you are ever in the same situation or if you ever want the little thrill that comes from saying ‘Pét-Nat’ to a sommelier, you can give thanks to the late winemaker Christian Chaussard of Domaine Le Briseau, who, as legend goes, helped coin that diminutive sobriquet in 1997.