Nivarius Lia Pet-Nat Rosado 2024
£15.25
The wine
A crisp and refreshing pale salmon-pink rosado with fragrant aromas of juicy apple, pear, wild strawberry and a touch of floral blossom. Balanced, with a rounded texture and a delicate natural sparkle. Pet-nat from Rioja is a rare thing.
Pet-nat is short for petillant naturel, and the method predates Champagne by centuries: the wine is bottled before its first fermentation finishes so the remaining sugar produces the bubble in the bottle, with nothing added. A pink pet-nat from Garnacha is about as far from traditional Rioja as it is possible to get.
The producer
Nivarius
View all Nivarius winesNivarius was established at Tudelilla in Rioja Oriental with an unusual purpose for the region: to make white wine seriously. Rioja is overwhelmingly red, and whites account for well under a tenth of production.
That has changed since 2007, when the appellation authorised nine additional white varieties alongside the traditional Viura, Malvasia and Garnacha Blanca. Among them were Maturana Blanca, a native Rioja grape documented as far back as 1622 and reduced to almost nothing before its rescue, and Tempranillo Blanco, a spontaneous white mutation of Tempranillo found on a single vine in 1988. Nivarius work with both.
The vineyards sit high on the slopes of the Yerga mountain at up to 700 metres, which is what allows white grapes to keep their acidity in one of the warmer corners of Rioja. The estate name comes from nivarius, the Latin for the snow used to chill wine, and the whole project is a bet on a category the region has barely explored.
