We wish we could put this hybrid pet nat down to years of tortuous trials—blood, sweat and tears and all that. But the reality is in 2019 we did a 200 bottle trial run of Cider and Verdelho because we would get the odd apple in our bins of Verdelho from Coxys vineyard/orchard. We liked it, so this year we did a larger batch containing 35% Pink Lady apples, 35% Red Delicious apples, 20% skin contact Verdelho and 10% Sangiovese rose. Makes sense right?

Apples came in at the end of the season this year and given the lowering temperature crawled its way through ferment. Given the freshness of the two apple varieties, we felt like it could do with a bit more texture and depth. During the first half of ferment we added 20% of our La Douche Tropicale skin contact Verdelho to flesh it out a bit and add some structure. Bottled at roughly 12g/l and then topped with some Sangiovese rose after disgorging. Disgorged, topped, capped, cleaned, labelled and boxed for your drinking pleasure.

This really does tick the box for both Cider and Pet Nat drinkers. Kinda reminds us of the old school Euro Pet Nats which first hit the market 10 to 15 years ago. A little savoury funk but with lovely fresh citrus and apple aromas. The carbonation is super soft and integrated, providing a really fresh drinking experience. – Konpira Maru