Piquette: wine leftovers for the “labouring class”
Not that it’s at all new, but I’ve recently discovered piquette, a wine-based beverage that has an ancient and interesting history, if one that flies under the radar.
I picked up a can or two of “P’tit Piquette” at a Quebec-based winery, Little Red Wagon, in Clarendon, which is about 80 kms northeast of Ottawa. But I’ve also noticed it seems to appear in a few other places in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.
Though perhaps primarily a French beverage, what adds an interesting layer of meaning is the drink’s historic role in labour culture that goes back a very long time.
For workers in ancient Roman wineries, the drink was essentially a perquisite of their chores and lucubration: workers were permitted to scoop off the remnants of the primary wine-making process, for which they had sweated and toiled but likely couldn’t afford to buy, in order to imbibe in a second batch.
They would collect the used wine skins, the gnarly stems and seeds and the mushed-up grape viscera — the flotsam and jetsam of the process, if you will — add some water and a dose of some source of sugar and give it all a second ferment.
Perhaps that previous labour relationship is akin to talented cooks today who sweat and toil to prepare and serve the finest (and most expensive meals) at premium restaurants but whose wage likely precludes them from eating such costly food themselves? Piquette-style wines were something the labourers could afford — and make themselves.
Today, the drink itself is a low ABV-bevie that is sparkling in nature — and contributes, you might say, to the “upcycling” and reduced waste of a circular economy in that the pomace is rejuvenated and re-hydrated to re-kickstart the fermentation process.
Mild in flavour, piquette has a bit of fizz to it and a low-alcohol hit for those sipping, but it may be something of an acquired taste, I have to say, similar, perhaps, to low-intervention natural wines, which often have just a touch of funk.
Regardless, it might be something interesting to try. There are some piquette producers in Ontario: Traynor and Tawse; in Quebec: Chateau de Cartes, Lieux Communs and Entre Pierre et Terre as well as Little Red Wagon.
