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Going Natural Wine Club - January 2022

Posted on January 19, 2022

by Abi

LFKS Piquette

Little Farm Winery & Kitten Swish Collaboration 

Cawston, British Columbia 

Tier 3 – Volatile Acid Trip* 

2022 is getting off to a good start with this month’s selection! 

This Piquette is probably one of, if not the best Piquette I’ve had the chance to try!   

Hang on, what is Piquette? Piquette is a cider/kombucha-like wine beverage made from fermenting the left-over pressed grape skins, stems, seeds and whatever else is in the tank with water. It’s simple and delicious! 

Located in the small, unadulterated wine town of Cawston, Little Farm Winery is a small and dynamic farm that produces some of Canada’s best low-intervention wines. Owned and operated by  Alishan Driediger and Rhys Pender MW, this dynamite duo has continuously immersed themselves within the minimal intervention approach to agriculture: 

 “Our dream has always been to make wines with minimal manipulation and intervention to really capture the vineyard site and growing season. Little Farm Winery will never be big.  We will always focus on making small batches of single-vineyard wine that reflect each site’s unique characteristics. The goal is to make interesting, characterful, natural-ish wines and look after our little farm.” - Little Farm Winery 

For this special release, Calgary-based Sommelier Brad Royale teamed up with Alishan and Rhys to produce a one-of-a-kind Piquette. Made from leftover pressed Chardonnay grapes, water and some fresh BC plums, this LFKS Piquette is described as being ‘somewhere between apple cider, raw kombucha and southern US-style iced tea' (Kitten Swish). I can agree with this statement. It is a fantastic Piquette that is juicy and fresh, whilst having just enough fermentation funk. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this Piquette on its own. Yet, I have a gut feeling that this is the wine to par with Scallion Pancakes, and all the accoutrements  

*I did have a hard time deciding if this should be Tier 2 or Tier 3. If we were to have a Tier 2.5, it would be perfect. But alas, we do not. I personally believe the style of Piquette is naturally a Tier 2, just for its unknown characteristics. That, as well as the funky notes in the Piquette, gave me a reason to knock it up to Tier 3.

  

Weingut Koppitsch Ret 2020

Neustel am See, Burgenland, Austria 

Zweigelt, Sankt Laurent  

Tier 2 – Goldilock’s Natty Sips 

Another fantastic wine that just so happens to be semi-exclusive to KWM! Weingut Koppitsch is a small winery located in Neusidel am See, Austria. Known for their energetic wines and fun labels, Alex & Maria Koppitsch have continuously knocked it out of the park with their wines!  They have always focused on the low-intervention, biodynamic approach to winemaking and vineyard management, but in recent years, Alex has stepped away even further from micromanaging every aspect of the vineyards. During the pandemic, Alex unfortunately contracted Covid-19 and suffered the effects of ‘long covid’. This made him step away from the vineyard more so than he would (according to Juice Imports, Alex was known as a stickler for precision). Since his slight retrieval from the vineyards, they have found the wines to increase in quality and he has also found the more relaxed approach has improved their work/life balance!  

Their low-intervention approach isn't just in the vineyards. As Juice Imports writes, “Their bottles are labelled with a single FSC-Certified paper to reduce waste; they’ve moved to glue and plastic-free corks from small Portuguese producers, coated with beeswax instead of paraffin; they’ve done away with wasteful capsules and plan to seal their bottles with wax from their own hives; their shipping boxes are made from recycled cardboard and don’t require tape; they bottle all their wines in lightweight bottles to reduce CO2 emissions during transport.” 

The Koppitsch Ret is a fun, expressive blend of Zewigelt (80%) and Sankt Laurent (20%). It is presented in a clear, burgundy bottle to showcase its approachability and youthful nature. This is what I would describe as a crunchy wine; It is full of those crunchy red berries, such as cranberries, raspberries and red currants, as well as a bright minerality, crispy autumn leaves and a kiss of red grapefruit. You can easily enjoy it with a slight chill served with roasted poultry, hearty winter salads, or even a classic cheese board. A very versatile wine! 

Pip pip, cheerio,
Abi
abigail@kensingtonwinemarket.com

This entry was posted in Wine, Going Natural Wine Club

 

 

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