Five best sparkling wines to dazzle your Valentine

Short for ‘pétillant naturel’ (or ‘naturally sparkling’), Pet Nat is a rustic style of sparkling wine, a farmhouse fizz made for drinking young, for popping its crown cap open without much fuss. Bright and lively, relatively low in alcohol, typically fruity and sometimes floral, depending on the grapes, and often cloudy and nuanced with the tang and funk of fermentation, it hits a sweet spot for cost and complexity when compared with market-leading sparklers Prosecco and champagne.

Each of these sparkling wines is made by capturing CO2 bubbles — a byproduct of fermenting sugar into alcohol — inside a closed vessel of some sort. For Prosecco, it’s a tank (Charmat method); for both champagne (traditional method) and Pet Nat (ancestral method), it’s a bottle.

Traditional-method sparklers begin as a still wine that is bottled with added yeast and sugars for a secondary fermentation and ageing in that bottle, before being disgorged to remove the dead yeasts (lees). Champagne is made this way, as is Crémant from other French regions, northern Italian Franciacorta, Spanish Cava, South African Cap Classique, English sparkling wine and more.

Simpler Pet Nat skips several steps: bottled during fermentation, it finishes producing CO2 bubbles under its cap. It is typically sold without disgorging or filtering, and continues to evolve in the bottle. (This can make it volatile, so chill it well and stand upright to let the sediment settle before opening with care.)

Pet Nat’s ‘ancestral method’ predates the traditional method by a century. It remained a local affair until its 21st-century revival, when it spread through Europe to the USA, and became the party wine du jour for a new generation of natural wine fans. Despite its heritage, Pet Nat feels young. The progressive producers who re-embraced it were typically more loyal to the principles of organic or biodynamic viticulture than the rules of their local wine appellation, giving Pet Nat an anti-establishment aura reflected in colourful labels and irreverent marketing.

I’ve recommended a properly delicious (and fairly widely available) example today, alongside four different sparklers for every budget, from a wine spritz to an English beauty to an alcohol-free favourite.​​​​

Wines of the week

Folias de Baco, Uivo PT Nat Rosé, Alto Douro, Portugal, 11pc, €24.50 Winemaker Tiago Sampaio crafts this utterly delicious pink Pet Nat from organic and biodynamic Pinot Noir vines planted in extreme conditions high in the Douro Valley. Very refreshing, with a saline crispness softened by pretty raspberry, delicate blossom and tangy cherry notes. Gorgeous with seafood; the clean and lean Uivo PT Nat Branco is brilliant with fried snacks. MacCurtain Wine Cellar (Cork), Strandfield Flowers (Dundalk), Baggot Street Wines, Brindle & Co, The Wine Pair, Sweeney’s D3, Lilliput Stores, Pinto Wines, D-Six Wines, Green Man Wines, Clontarf Wines, 64 Wine, Blackrock Cellar, thenudewineco.ie

Pasqua Romeo & Juliet Prosecco Rosé DOC Extra Dry 2021, Italy, 11pc, €19.95 A playful nod to Verona’s Romeo & Juliet wall, graffitied with thousands of love notes, this is peachy pink in colour and fruity in style (think summer pudding, peach pavlova and hints of kiwi’s freshness). It pairs well with spicy or salty snacks. From €25.95 until February 14. O’Briens Wine; obrienswine.ie

Rathfinny Wine Estate Classic Cuvée Brut 2018, Sussex, England, 12pc, €49.95 A Pinot Noir-led blend of champagne’s classic trio, this sparkling wine has dense minerality and precise acidity yet a fleshy richness with notes of ginger snaps, toasted macadamia and salted lemon crispness. The Corkscrew, Mitchell & Son, Green Man Wines, McHugh’s, Sweeney’s D3, Blackrock Cellar, The Wine Centre, Ely Wine Store, wineonline.ie

Kolonne Null, Rosé Sparkling, Germany, 0pc, €22-€24 From a good alcohol-free producer, this is fun and fruity with fragrant berries and redcurrant tang, and smartly packaged for a celebratory pop. Their Cuvée Blanc Sparkling No 01 is nicely nuanced. Look too for Hollow Leg, Fritz Muller, French Bloom and Thomson & Scott Noughty. The Corkscrew, Green Man Wines, thecorkscrew.ie

Something & Nothing Spritz, Sauvignon Blanc & Cucumber Seltzer, 4pc, €3.95 (330ml) One-third French Sauvignon, two-thirds cucumber soda. Crisp and clean, yet with lots of flavour of grated cucumber, lemongrass and minty, grassy herbs. Pair with oysters, sushi or Asian flavours. Look too for their alcohol-free Yuzu Seltzer (€2.50, Fallon & Byrne). lottsandco.ie