Look out because there’s a new ‘it-drink’ in town, with a new style of wine taking Melbourne’s bottle shops by storm.
As per The Herald Sun, the wine in question is called Piquette. A sustainably-made and low-alcohol alternatives, it might be wine but it comes with a much lower alcohol content, around the same as just one beer. And priced at just $20 a bottle, it’s been flying off the shelves, making it almost impossible to find in Melbourne anymore. That’s what happens you become the new ‘it-drink’.
Macedon Ranges grape grower Micah Hewitt is one of the few Victorian producers crafting the fashionable style of wine, under his Defialy label, and his Bitza Fizzy Piquette sold out both in the city’s bottle shops and online. “When I started making it I didn’t think of it being on-trend,” he said. “It was only after I started showing others for tastings that I knew this was going to do well.”
Just listen to this description of Piquette: the stylish wine snubs traditional winemaking practices, produced by naturally fermenting leftover pressed grape skins rather than whole grapes. This results in a lower-alcohol and slightly fizzy drop. It’s a flexible drink too, able to combine with different skins. Hewitt, for example, makes his piquet with piano, pecorino, shiraz, carmenere, and vermentino skins.
Don’t worry if you’ve not yet had the chance to try the new style though. Hewitt’s Defialy label are planning for further releases, including five this Spring. Just keep your eyes peeled when you’re in your local bottle shop.
It makes sense that it was popular in Melbourne with lower-alcohol drinking alternatives being all the rage recently. People getting healthier and also having a good time? Who’d have thought of that. Much has been made of millennials seemingly favouring drinking less alcohol, while Cosmopolitan even offered a list of 23 of the best low-alcohol drink options earlier this year.
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Check out this explainer on what Piquette is by Blind Corner:
