Old Westminster Take it Easy Piquette 2021

Piquette is made by rehydrating grape pomace with water after the primary juice has been pressed off, triggering a second spontaneous fermentation with the residual sugar and wild yeast still clinging to the skins. The result is a lower-alcohol, wine-like beverage that was historically given to vineyard laborers throughout Europe as a harvest-time drink. Old Westminster has been among the first American producers to revive and document the style, releasing it first as a pét-nat piquette before developing this still, blended version.

Take it Easy is a blend of 60% Chambourcin rosé, 35% piquette blanc, and 5% piquette rouge, brightened with verjus. Chambourcin is a French-American hybrid teinturier grape, meaning its juice is naturally pink rather than clear, which gives this piquette its hazy pink color even at low extraction. The wine is fermented with wild yeast and bottled without fining or filtration. ABV comes in at 10%, reflecting the diluted nature of a pomace re-ferment.

On the nose: tart red cherry, raspberry vinegar, and pomegranate. On the palate it delivers white cherry, gooseberry, and a distinct saline edge, with a small addition of verjus sharpening the acidity in place of added sulfites. It drinks very lightly, with a slight spritz in some bottles from residual CO2. Drink immediately.

Old Westminster farms its Home Vineyard in Carroll County, Maryland at 800 feet elevation on channery loam soils over a bedrock of greenstone schist. Vineyard management is pragmatic and mostly organic, with cover crops rotated to reduce inputs and encourage vine health. All fruit is hand-picked; winemaker Lisa Hinton ferments with indigenous yeast and avoids fining and filtration across the entire portfolio.