2021 ASTRO BUNNY, Pét-Nat, Tim Wildman. Australia

Max Allen on JancisRobinson.com:
“Wildman made his first pét-nat in South Australia in 2014, starting with a tonne of grapes and borrowed space in a mate’s winery. Since then, working with various growers in various regions (in 2021 the grapes were from the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and the Riverland), and moving from winery to winery, he has built production to a fairly serious 33 tonnes (around 30,000 bottles) for the 2022 vintage.
‘What I want to do is make pét-nat that’s clean, fruity, fault-free, and delicious’, he says. ‘To do that, if you’re not adding anything during the winemaking (no acid, no SO2), you need to work with fruit that is naturally low pH. And that inevitably led me to working with southern Italian varieties.’
Half of the blend, he says, consists of white grapes picked at around 10.5 Baumé, to provide a neutral, crisp, clean base. On top of that are layered the Nero d’Avola and Mataro for fruit weight and a touch of colour, and a big slurp of Zibibbo (aka Muscat Gordo Blanco in Australia, Muscat of Alexandria elsewhere) – sourced from old vines grown in the Riverland – given 24 hours’ skin contact for perfume and spice.
The combination works extremely well. The wine is bursting with really enticing, peachy aromas – evoking a well-made Bellini – and, despite being bone dry, is irresistibly grape-pulpy on the tongue, with an echo of sweetness (the Zibibbo doing a lot of heavy lifting here). There’s a well-judged level of persistent, gentle fizz carrying through to the last sip. So many pet-nats are gushy up-front and fail to follow through, but this isn’t too eager to please, and continues to deliver.”