Toronto's Burdock Brewery cans their crushable, low-ABV piquette
Burdock BreweryIt’s Memorial Day weekend: the unofficial kickoff to summer drinking season. Across the country, drinkers are cracking open zeitgeist-fueled hard seltzers, crushable beers and ready-to-drink cocktails.
But this summer, let us introduce you to piquette—a low-ABV, wine-adjacent bubbly beverage.
“It's a very bright, cheerful style with lots of expressive fruity flavor,” describes Katherine Sturgill, the beverage director of Chicago’s Daisies. “Piquette is slightly fizzy and much lighter than a regular glass of wine—the perfect wine to enjoy on a sunny day on a back porch with friends.”
“Piquettes remind me of session beers (which I love), in that you can drink them, seemingly, forever,” says Joe Catalino of What To Drink. “My wife and I lovingly refer to piquettes as ‘breakfast wine.’”
For the modern drinker, piquette—or ‘little wine’—checks off a lot of boxes. It’s low-ABV, sustainably-made and super quenchable, sipping like a zippy, effervescent wine-seltzer hybrid.
“Piquette drinks like a low-ABV cross between wine and sparkling water,” says Martha Stoumen, the doyenne of California’s natural wine movement.
What is piquette? “After fresh grapes are pressed for white or rosé wine, the pulp left behind still has some remaining sugar and flavor that goes, unused, to the compost pile,” Stoumen explains. “Piquette makers save those skins and pulps and rehydrates them with water.”
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“The natural yeast on the grape skins and in the air will ferment those unused sugars into alcohol, just as they would in regular natural winemaking,” she continues. “Because of the water addition, there is less sugar per volume of liquid during fermentation, which leads to a lower-alcohol beverage.”
While piquette may be new to some, “it has a history that dates back to Roman times, but pulling that forward it was often used as refreshment for farmhands, or even as payment to laborers,” describes Eric Moorer, director of sales and engagement at Domestique. Clean water was seldom available in the fields, so vineyard workers would sip piquette as they picked and pruned. Maxing out at around 8-9% ABV, it’s low enough in alcohol to not interfere with productivity.
While piquette was not traditionally sold commercially, over the last few years the category underwent somewhat of a rebirth, largely thanks to the efforts of one man.
“Piquette was given a platform by Todd Cavallo from his Wild Arc winery located in the heart of the Hudson Valley,” describes Yannick Benjamin, the sommelier and restaurateur of Contento. “If you see a lot of delicious piquette being made in America we have Todd Cavallo to thank.”
After stumbling on piquette in a history book, Cavallo realized the wine-beverage would allow him to get a larger yield from his grapes, in turn drumming up more revenue for the winery. So he started bottling and selling it.
“Who doesn’t love the idea of making money on what would have become compost?” quips Erik Plambeck, co-owner and beverage director of Maracuja.
While Wild Arc was one of the first to offer bottlings for sale, a wave of other North American winemakers have followed suit.
“I enjoy the simplicity of it,” says Moorer. “It isn’t something that you have to think too hard about or take too seriously. You can share it with your friends and not worry about whether or not it needs time to age and be its best. Also, that cloud of drinking guilt sort of disappears—you’ll still have your wits after a glass or two.”
“High-acid, kombucha-loving wine drinkers, typically of a younger demographic, loved piquette for its chuggability and low price point,” says Maracuja’s Plambeck.
Piquette’s resurgence also reflects a growing interest in the low-alcohol category.
“I think we’re seeing a shift in the way that people drink and that is a big part of why piquette is having a moment,” notes Moorer. “We have so many people coming to our store looking for low- and zero-proof alternatives to wine, beer and spirits.”
Daisies’ Sturgill seconds this. “We are generally seeing an upswing in non-alcoholic and low-ABV cocktails. Piquette is the logical wine counterpart to that moment because it's also a low-ABV drink.”
Dan Dailey, the food and beverage director of Letty’s Tavern, favors piquette for cocktail purposes. “We’re R&D-ing it as a cocktail ingredient. The weather is getting warmer and I love that it has a low-ABV profile, much like bitter liqueurs and aperitifs. Piquette’s flavor profiles are not well known so it lends subtle nuance to easy-drinking cocktails.”
Domestique’s Moorer notes there’s also a sustainable appeal to the beverage. “Piquette shares a lot of similarities with the natural wine movement—it's another way to reduce waste and make the most out of what you’ve been given.”
While piquette production is on the uptick, he’s noticing more and more brands are jumping on the bandwagon—and not always for the better. “The market is saturated and the spectrum of quality is vast. Like a good meatloaf or carbonara, a piquette’s success often can be followed back to the quality of the original ingredients.”
“Good piquette is actually quite hard to make,” seconds Stoumen. “Water also dilutes the amount of acidity in solution. Acidity naturally found in grape juice creates an environment where few select microbes can thrive: the microbes that ferment our grape juice into wine. Change that balance by diluting the acidity and the new environment you've created is hospitable to a far wider range of microbes: none that can make you sick, so don't worry there, but definitely some that can create some rouge flavors and textures. “
So what piquettes should populate your patio tables?
“Patrick Cappiello of Monte Rio Cellars also makes fab piquettes,” vouches Stoumen. “He and I share a winemaking space, and I gave him a few pointers his first year making it. They're so delicious that I've now told him that I've changed my mind on a consulting fee: a case per year of piquette please!”
Doreen Winkler of Orange Glou reaches for “Old Westminster Winery’s Piquette made of pinot gris and albariño grapes grown in Maryland. It is light-bodied with notes of juicy raspberry and nectarine skin—an orange wine-esque piquette.”
Winkler also loves Southold Farm and Cellar’s canned piquette, “and it’s out of Texas of all places! This is a rosé piquette made from all their leftover grape skins from 2018 & 2019—it’s very delicious with juicy tart fruits, like sour cherry and plum.”
James Beard-noted sommelier Belinda Chang adds, “I love the Une Femme piquette because it is clean in style—a ruby red Meunier from the organic Van Der Kamp Vineyard. If you love a great chilled Beaujolais, you will love this wine.” With warmer days approaching, this crushable, quenchable wine-ish beverage feels decidedly of-now—sessionable, sustainable and summer-ready.
May 30, 2021 at 04:25AM
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