We wanted to create the perfect summer sipper, and our friend Tristen at Kingston Wine Co. clued us in on a chapter in an old book he had on the history of French wine about Piquette. There are a few accounts of how it traditionally worked in the old world. In some, field-workers were allowed to take the pomace after pressing, and they added water and repressed it at home to make a low-alcohol second wine. In other accounts, the second wine was made by the winery and used as payment to the workers the following season, something they could drink during harvest with the low-alcohol keeping them from slowing down after lunch.
We liked the idea of extending the use of our local fruit, and also the ability to provide an exciting new (old) beverage at a reasonable price point. So we took the natively fermented pomace from our wines and individually soaked them with well water for 48 hours, and then we direct pressed them to tanks to finish fermenting and aging. We blended back 15% of the actual wine to increase the alcohol content and acidity for stability, and refermented it in the bottle with local wildflower honey to add bubbles.
Think of it like a natural wine-cooler, perfect for porch sipping all summer.
We will be releasing all three versions very soon! Luca Approves:
