Rachel Signer

"It was Rachel's dream to be that girl: the one smoking hand-rolled cigarettes out the French windows of her 19th-century Parisian studio apartment, wearing second-hand Isabel Marant jeans and sipping a glass of Beaujolais redolent of crushed roses with a touch of horse mane. Instead she was an under-appreciated freelance journalist and waitress in Brooklyn, frustrated at always being broke and completely miserable in love. When she tastes her first pétillant-naturel (pét nat), a type of natural wine made with no additives or chemicals, it set her on a journey of self-discovery, both deeply personal and professional, that led her to Paris and eventually deep into the wilds of south Australia, where she fell in love with someone completely different from what she thought she wanted-"Wildman." She is forced to ask herself the hard question: can she really handle the unconventional life she claims she truly wants? The discovery of natural wine became an introduction to a larger ethos and philosophy that Rachel had long craved: one rooted in egalitarianism, diversity, organics, environmental concerns, and ancient traditions. In You Had Me at Pét Nat, as Rachel begins to truly understand these revolutionary wine producers upending the industry, their deep commitment to making their wine with integrity and with as little intervention as possible, she is smacked with the realization that unless she faces, head-on, her own issues with commitment, she will not be able to live a life that is as freewheeling, unpredictable, and singular as the wine she loves"--

A Natural Wine-Soaked Memoir

You Had Me at Pet-Nat

Helen 

And yet, as I nestled into a café crème on the terrace of a random caté after walking through the Brancusi studio, where the sculptor had crafted his work while living in his adopted city, I had to admit to myself: I was still very much in love with Paris. But I was starting to realize that being in love with a city wasn't the same as loving an actual person.

For many who adore natural wine, pét-nat is the heart and song of Song of nwement, something we rely on to set a cheery mood amongst PLle or kick off a weekend gathering. A chilled, cloudy, low-alcohol tie of pét-nat is the bad boy in a leather jacket, while a bottle of Champagne is more like a woman in a Chanel suit with pearls. 

In the word yes" is contained multitudesit's an agreement, a joining of oneself to an idea, a future state of things. "I will" means "there is a future." And it's us. It's your visions, your life's work, merging with mine; it's a dialectic narrowing its focus, becoming a synced conversa- tion instead of two individuals facing apart from each other, yelling out into the universe.

You Had Me at Pet-Nat quotes

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