It’s been a while since the last Capital Wine newsletter! I guess the explosion of the pandemic reopening required a disproportionate amount of attention. But I’m looking forward to writing more features again! And to kick things off this week we’re going to starting with something from old, humble beginnings, recently made new again, and incredibly delicious…Piquette! Ever heard of it?

Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of it, its a relatively new revival of some old French techniques. Back it the day it was considered farmer wine or the drink of the field hands who fermented the leftover scraps. This is because it was essentially made with the leftover grape pomace—the skins, seeds, stems etc left over after pressing the grapes. Typically in quality winemaking you only have 2 pressings of any bunch of grapes. The leftover pomace has in different places been trucked away as garbage, used as compost or fertilizer, or even distilled into Marc or Grappa. But something the French would also sometimes do is add some water to it and let the remaining sugars in the skins ferment a lighter wine-like beverage. I say wine-like because as soon as you add water it’s not technically wine anymore. So at this point you’re making a kinda fun drink just for the hell of it. And because it isn’t wine, it doesn’t have to follow the technical appellation rules of production, you can do whatever you want with it: add some ingredients, flavouring, etc. For the most part they were bottled before entirely finishing fermentation so that they would capture some of the C02 produced by fermentation and make it a lightly sparkling wine.

So most Piquettes drink like a light bubbly, but with very interesting additional flavours. And because most Piquette producers are part of the low-intervention/natural wine world, it’s very common for them to be unfiltered, hazy, and maybe even a bit funky mixed in with the fruity character. In a lot of ways Piquette kind of walks the line between a Pet-Nat or light sparkling wine and a wine spritzer or a cooler. And because it is fermenting the watered down pomace, decreasing the amount of sugar in it, they are relatively low alcohol, rarely exceeding 5 or 6%.

In the end what we get with the reintroduction of Piquettes to the mainstream wine world are easy-drinking, surprisingly complex, sparkling wine-like drinks that are often bottled under crown caps or even in cans. It’s also a great way to make complete use of the grapes during winemaking in a nose-to-tail eating offal and making stock from bones kind of way. And this week we have 2 great Canadian Piquettes to showcase this great style:

BENJAMIN BRIDGE, PIQUETTE | NOVA SCOTIA $5.99 x12

I’ve written here many times about Benjamin Bridge and why they’re such an iconic Canadian operation, pioneering top class sparkling wine in Nova Scotia since the early 2000’s. And they got into the Piquette game relatively early as well…which made perfect sense for them as North American sparkling specialists.

Their Piquette is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat of New York, Chardonnay Musque, Ortega, and Geisenheim skins. On top of that it has some fresh citrus and Bay of Fundy Sea Salt added to it (in past years they’ve even dry-hopped it a bit like beer!). It’s unfiltered and hazy golden yellow colour. It’s crisp, fruity, citrusy, and minerally and sparkling with a nice mouse. You can drink this straight out of the can like a refreshing beer or you can put it in some nice stemware and drink it like a sparkling wine. However you do it, there’s zero pretension and a lot of deliciousness. We tend to think of these as summer/beach kind of bevvies, but they are just as easily autumn campfire drinks, charcuterie pairings, or weekday aperitifs. And at $5.99 per 250ml can in cases of 12, you don’t have much to lose to try out a case! Keep half a case of cans cold in the fridge for after work or weekend afternoons, you won’t regret it!

TAWSE WINERY, PIQUETTE | NIAGARA $5.95 x24

I’ve also written here quite a bit about Tawse Winery in Niagara over the past few years. Being an organic winery and the 2nd Biodynamic winery in Canada, producing a Piquette was just a matter of time for them. And when they did come out with one, it didn’t disappoint. The Tawse 2020 Piquette is made of 64% Cabernet Franc skins and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon skins for a really pretty rosé piquette. Whereas Benjamin Bridge had added some hops, citrus fruit, and maritime sea salt, Tawse takes a different direction towards their spirits program. If you didn’t know, Tawse has a small spirits program where they distill some excellent Vodka, Gin, and Whiskey. So to add to this Piquette they infuse it with some of the same herbs and botanicals that they use in their gin. Another full circle of that nose-to-tail type of philosophy. Look for lots of very pretty red fruit notes: strawberry, raspberry, cherry along with some floral notes and herbaceousness from the Cabernet Franc and the gin botanicals.

If you’re interested in trying either of these out, you can grab a couple cans from the Byward Wine Market or you can just order your own case! Benjamin Bridge is almost sold out and will like be gone by the end of this week, so don’t hesitate to email me for a case if your interest is piqued!

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The Byward Wine Market is fully open for in person shopping, as well as online orders offering curbside pickup or local delivery within Ottawa. And just a reminder that the order deadline for Friday case deliveries is Wednesday before 9:00am. Reach out if you have any questions, and check out the archive of past FEATURES if you’re interested in other recommendations. Lastly, please feel free to forward this to anyone in Ontario who may be interested in home wine delivery and follow us on Instagram at @bywardwinemarket!