🍷 Pétillant
The French word for lightly sparkling wine.
Pétillant is the French word for a lightly sparkling wine. In the glass it shows fine bubbles, but it holds less gas than Champagne or other fully sparkling wines.
The word comes from a French verb meaning "to fizz gently". In France it is used for wines with low pressure in the bottle. The gas comes from fermentation: some of the carbon dioxide stays in the wine instead of escaping into the air.
Pétillant is close to semi-sparkling wine and to perlan. These are related ideas, and all of them describe a light fizz. Pet-nat stands apart: it is wine bottled before the first fermentation has finished, so the bubbles form inside the bottle.
Pétillant is made in many parts of France, so it belongs to French wine in general. The word is rarely printed on labels, and it tells you nothing about sweetness or colour. It describes the character of the bubbles, not a grape or a place.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Pétillant ← similar ← 🍷 Semi-sparkling wine → kind of → 🍷 Types of wine → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Part of
- 🍷 Semi-sparkling wine
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ French wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Semi-sparkling wine, 🍷 Perlant, 🍷 Pét-nat
Frequently asked questions
What is pétillant?
It is the French term for a lightly sparkling wine with a small amount of bubbles.
How is pétillant different from Champagne?
It has less carbon dioxide and lower pressure in the bottle, so there is less foam and fewer bubbles.
Are pétillant and pet-nat the same?
Not quite. Pet-nat is a method of finishing fermentation in the bottle, while pétillant is a general word for a light fizz.
What to read next
Similar
🍷 Perlant · 🍷 Pét-nat · 🍷 Aerated semi-sparkling wine · 🍷 Agulha · 🍷 Perlwein · 🍷 Frizzante
⚠️ Wine contains alcohol: adults only, drink in moderation. Wine usually contains sulphites; egg white or milk proteins are sometimes used for fining — important for allergies and for vegans.