Cali Coast Wine Country | Sinor-Lavallee Soirée Du Gris Pétillant Naturel (plus oysters!)

Winemaker Mike Sinor is the SLO Coast Champagne Renegade. Instead of focusing on traditional-method sparklers, he uses traditional and new/interesting varieties and then uses the older, pared-down and simple, méthode ancestral instead.

Pétillant Naturel, or Pét-Nat, is an even more ancient way to make sparkling wine than the widely-used méthode champenoise (also called méthode traditionelle) originated in Champagne, France. In the méthode ancestrale, the wine is bottled with a crown cap before it even finishes its first fermentation, so it develops carbon dioxide as it goes. It’s not disgorged, often unfiltered, and can be made from any grape variety.

Each year at Sinor-Lavallee, you can find something different and fun as Sinor experiments with all-natural frizzante bubbles.

Sinor’s Ancestral Pét-Nat Sparkling Pinot Noir is still available, in limited quantity. This is his original Sparkling Wine, first released in 2016, and exudes a very traditional taste and feel.

Notes on the 2018:

Mike Sinor continues to hone his pétillant naturel talents, and this is his best bubbly bottling yet. The cloudy wine gives off sharp aromas of frozen pluot, lime blossom and grapefruit juice before delivering a similar palate of grapefruit rind and fresh citrus. It puckers the mouth, but pleasantly.
Matt Kettmann, Wine Enthusiast

And Sinor’s new sparkler is the 2020 Soirée Du Gris, made from Pinot Gris in the spirit of vinho verde. This means it was picked early (when the grapes are almost still green) and delivers crispness to the palate, with flavors of green apple, pear and jasmine.

This winery is 1 of over 75 sparkling wine producers in San Luis Obispo County.