One of the most buzzed-about wines right now isn’t even a wine. “Piquette is a wine-ish beverage,” clarifies Erin Carlman Weber, co-owner of All Together Now, the West Town café and wine shop. “It’s made with the thick mass of skins, seeds, and stems that are left over from the winemaking process, then refermented.” The result is light, spritzy, and low in alcohol. In other words? “Piquette is day drinking central,” Weber says.
Right now, most of the piquettes you’ll find in stores here come from Old Westminster Winery in Maryland, but Weber expects others will be available soon, as a growing number of domestic producers are embracing the style. At All Together Now, Weber stocks a rotating selection of Old Westminster piquettes, including Orange Pét-Nat Piquette, a refreshing, peachy sparkler ($24), and Skin Contact Piquette, a tart canned spritzer ($6).
Need another reason to add piquette to your repertoire? Here’s one: It’s cheap! Most bottles top out at around $25.