On Monday afternoon, Al barrelled down the M20 in the electric van to collect this year's allocation of Pet Nat from Lucie & Jules at Ham Street, ready to leave the arch with orders this week. Packaged in reused boxes!
Our first UK release from the '22 heatwave (Hot Grape Summer) - Pet Nat 2022 is a deep-fruited, juicy number, bold and refreshing. After that scorching summer last year, grapes reached phenolic ripeness wildly early: the pick for the pet nat was on September 25th to retain acidity (a full 2-3 weeks ahead of the harvest for the still wines).
Made in collaboration with Nic & Dan at Offbeat, the fruit was escorted from east to west for foot-crushing in the Salisbury shed, a short maceration before co-fermentation in fibreglass, bottled after 5 months. Zero sulphur, zero disgorgement.
In contrast to 2021 - a Bacchus-forward blend - Pinot Noir leads the charge in 2022, comprising about two-thirds of the co-ferment. Pinot Gris adds a little texture and acidity, whilst Bacchus is used as seasoning to lift the more delicate aromatics.
It's another accomplished release from the Ham Street vineyards, a testament to the quality of fruit produced on their organic, regenerative farm. Despite lower yields than expected in 2022 (thanks mostly to the heat) grapes were pristine and with good concentration - big flavours from the South East this year.
As we look forward to the vintage ahead, Jules was optimistic on the phone this morning:
"we had such ideal flowering in 2022 that things are looking good for 2023. Of course its too early to say, but with this years bud burst we're looking at two bunches per cane, compared to last year's one."
"It's already drier than we'd like, with no real rain since April, but this winter was nice and wet, and we had good rains though march and April, so we're heading into the season with more reserve water than at this stage in 2022."
AVAILABLE NOW
SPARKLING
NEW 2022 - Pet Nat - Ham Street Wines - Ham Street - Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Bacchus
FOR WHOLESALE ENQUIRIES: HELLO@WINESUTB.COM
We don't often talk about labels on the wines, but the label for Lucie & Jules' pet nat relates so directly to what's in the bottle that we thought it warranted a little attention.
Beginning with their first release last year, Ham Street's pet nat label is an annual Soil Chromatograph: 21 looked a little more like a sunflower, '22 bears closer resemblance to an ammonite fossil.
Soil Chromatography happens to be both particularly beautiful (if your soils are healthy) and incredibly useful in the same stroke. It's a DIY, analogue way of assessing your soil for humus, minerals, microbiology and more.
It's a photographic process, as finely ground soil is absorbed by filter paper that has been prepared with silver nitrate. Left to expose in the sun, a 'picture' of that soil appears. One a grower can use to interpret the health of the soil. We could go into detail about how to read Soil Chromatographs, but it's an absolute wormhole, no pun intended.
Basically: spikes (variations in the outer border) and channels (the radial lines) indicate greater soil nutrition, the more spikes, the more material in the chromatograph. Simply put- more pattern and colour = greater soil health. Looks like the soil at Ham Street is as healthy as it should be with all the effort they put into their viticulture.