Review: Piquette Zero's wine-style beverage is a uniquely satisfying innovation

Available through benjaminbridge.com

BEnJAMIN BRIDGE VINEYARD AT SUNSET. PHOTO CREDIT: BENJAMIN BRIDGE WINERY.

How close a non alcoholic wine comes to replicating the real thing is a metric that many dry drinkers use to measure and evaluate the non alcoholic products they are trying. Whether you still drink the full octane wines or not, we have all been trained to seek that complex dance of grapes, phenols, tannins and the warmth coming from alcohol.

Mass produced non alcoholic wine often lacks subtle complexity and also a connection to the land and to place. Labels are vague and brands lack the story of terroir that consumers are inspired by.

For non-alcoholic wine, this quest seems futile at times and begs the question of whether we’re ready for a new approach. Rather than replicating a wine with exactness, is there also the possibility of building a unique product from the ground up with the same sensory elements of a wine but standing out as something different?

Piquette Zero, a wine-style beverage created at Benjamin Bridge winery in rural Nova Scotia is one such breakthrough product that will certainly produce a ‘yes’ moment for anyone who drinks it.

Piquette is a style of low-alcohol wine that is made from adding water and sugar to the leftover grape skins, stems, seeds and pulp (called the pomace) that remain after pressing. It derives from ancient Greece and has found its way through history as a drink for farm hands and vineyard laborers, as a way to make use of the winemaking remnants. It’s often an ABV of 7% or lower.

At Benjamin Bridge, creating a piquette aligns with their ethos of natural, regenerative farming and eco-consciousness. They were already making piquette from the pomace of their Ortega, Sauvignon Blanc and Geisenheim blends. Head winemaker Jean-Benoit Deslauriers wanted to take it one step further to see if they could also make something exceptional that was alcohol-free.

“We had already brought the alcohol down by 70% in our regular piquette, and that’s where the inspiration came from,” he explained. “We knew that for what this product might lose in alcohol, it gains in phenolics and aromatics, which come naturally from the grape skins.”

HEAD WINEMAKER Jean Benoit DeSLAURIERS. PHOTO CREDIT: BENJAMIN BRIDGE.

Deslauriers’ knowledge and enthusiasm for the growing field of non alcoholic production has resulted in a wine-style beverage that opens your mind to the potential in this area.

Piquette Zero comes in a ready-to-drink can, but is best served chilled in a wine glass. It has a very pleasant aroma of resinous citrus. When poured, it has a nice unfiltered elegance and pale champagne colour that replicates the wine experience.

On the palette, you’ll be amazed by the crispness which is both refreshing and interesting, combined with a very slight tartness and an effervescence that elevates the whole experience. There is a surprising fullness that doesn’t leave the mouthfeel lacking.

Thanks to the trio of aromatic grapes used, it’s got incredible aromatic heft with notes of fresh orange grove, plus a hint of other citrus fruit layers. There is a slight saltiness that is barely discernible - the addition of sea salt which Deslauriers says comes from the Bay of Fundy. This is the purposeful stylistic character of Deslauriers’ piquette zero.

“Grape skins provide terpenes, and all the tannins, aromatics and antioxidants - even without the alcohol involvement - so we were able to extract exactly what we needed to from the pomace and utilize that to make a very aromatic and unique product in Piquette Zero.”

It’s almost impossible to evaluate Piquette Zero with traditional wine metrics because it’s not wine. It’s not trying to be wine, it’s just authentically a wine-style beverage.

“Our goal wasn’t to make an exact replica, but can we make something compelling and low-intervention - then we will live with the stylistic discrepancy that will separate it from a traditional wine,” Deslauriers explained.

Deslauriers, who is a big champion of non alcoholic innovation, is already dreaming about his next project. He sees the effort behind Piquette Zero as just the beginning, and knows there is a market in Canada for people interested in drinks like this.

“I’m experimenting with new ways of approaching the non alcoholic idea - there needs to be more of a connection to ‘place’ and to Canada and I think I can do that.”

To try Piquette Zero for yourself, it’s available across the country from a variety of online retailers:

BenjaminBridge.com
SoftCrush.ca
AFBev.ca
Soberlicious.ca
HarvestWines.ca
NotWasted.ca
Vinearts.ca
Bushelandpeck.ca