Our drinking habits change over time. The wines that Baby Boomers enjoy the most may be completely different from what GenX prefers to drink. There is also a change in environmental awareness. Many of us want to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as we can. Some want organic or biodynamic wine production. Saving habitat for the birds and the bees. Some ask for lower alcohol wines. Something that you can drink from a can while you are out on the beach; no need for a wine cooler, bottle opener, and glasses. Just open the can and enjoy.
I think some of the younger generations are more into the lower alcohol beverages and do not mind drinking from a can. It is very portable and not pretentious. What can this mean for our BC wineries? Do they have any options? Some wineries are already addressing the wine bottle issue, by now offering their wines in cans, tetra boxes, and pouches, although that means that they can not have the VQA label attached to them. VQA requires their wines to be in a glass bottle.
But another drink made from wine grapes, that you may not have heard about is called Piquette. Piquette is not made from fermented grapes, rather it’s made by adding water to grape pomace (the leftover skins, seeds, and stems of the grapes) and fermenting the pomace with the remaining grape sugars. I believe the resulting beverage is bottled while still fermenting like pet-nat. The result is a fizzy, low alcohol drink that also has a sour taste to it. This makes it an easy drink for beer and kombucha drinkers to accept, as well as wine drinkers that want something lighter in alcohol, that is fun and does not require years of ageing.
Piquette is also ecologically friendly. You are reusing the waste material from wine production to create a new beverage. When you have squeezed out the last from the pomace after creating Piquette, you can then return the pomace to the vineyard.
Currently, these BC wineries produce Piquette: A Sunday in August, Averill Creek, Bella, Birch Block, Else Wines, Lightning Rock, Little Farm, Red Bird, Terravista Vineyards, Ursa Major
If any other BC wineries are producing Piquette, please let me know in the Comment field below.
Try some Piquette for this summer sipping in the sun and tell your friends.
