Lost in a Field

Lost in a Field is Tim Wildman MW’s wonderfully unconventional English wine project, turning Britain’s disappearing heritage grapes into vibrant pét-nat while bringing neglected old vineyards back to life.

A Master of Wine since 2008, Englishman Tim made his name in South Australia with cult pét-nats Astro Bunny and Piggy Pop. Despite the MW credentials, he prefers wine without too much ceremony, approaching it with humor, curiosity and a healthy disregard for convention. His belief is simple: serious winemaking does not have to result in serious-looking wine.

When Tim turned his attention home in early 2021, he found an industry transformed. English sparkling wine was booming, new vineyards were being planted and international recognition was growing rapidly. But Tim was drawn to a less familiar side of English wine. Looking for heritage grapes for a pét-nat, he contacted more than 200 growers. Just two had commercial quantities to sell.

That scarcity sent him down a rabbit hole, tracking down small, often forgotten vineyards planted in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s by eccentric amateurs and grower-makers, many neglected, abandoned or at risk of disappearing.

What began as a hunt for grapes became a mission to find and save these vineyards before they were lost for good.

Before Chardonnay and Pinot Noir dominated, England’s early vineyards were planted collaboratively and experimentally, often with Germanic varieties suited to the country’s cool, unpredictable climate: Madeleine Angevine, Reichensteiner, Schönburger, Huxelrebe and Triomphe d’Alsace. Once the backbone of the industry, many were later replaced by more fashionable grapes or vineyards left behind altogether.

Since 2022, Tim has thrown himself into the hunt for these heritage varieties with characteristic curiosity and a slightly obsessive streak, working with the growers and custodians of the remaining plots to bring together tiny parcels of fruit that might otherwise never make it into a bottle. Come harvest, that means a gloriously impractical 72-hour, 1,000-mile dash across England, traveling east to west to collect grapes from each vineyard (see map for the ground Tim covered to bring together the 2023 vintage). Tim had a hunch these unfashionable old varieties were exactly what could make an aromatic and delicious pét-nat. And he was right, Frolic celebrates them exactly as they are: distinctive, resilient and thoroughly British.

Pétillant naturel, or pét-nat, is one of the oldest methods of making sparkling wine: bottle it before fermentation has finished and let the final fizz happen naturally inside. Deceptively simple in principle, it leaves very little room to hide: excellent fruit, precise timing and a little nerve are essential.

Tim keeps things low-intervention and lets the vintage lead, with the blend shifting each year according to which vineyards and heritage varieties are at their most expressive. The result is Frolic. Vivid, aromatic, energetic and enormously fun to drink. It’s English sparkling wine, but not as we know it. Less convention and ceremony, more character and joy.

A gloriously idiosyncratic piece of English wine history, brought fizzing back to life. And one we’re delighted to bring to the US.

For mor information visit: https://www.lostinafield.com/

English Wines

‘Frolic’ Pét-Nat 2023

LOST IN A FIELD

English Wines

‘Frolic’ Pét-Nat 2023

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