Piquette wine tips?

[Handy]

As an experiment this year I am going to make some Piquette wines, I have both red and white grapes, and am expecting a good harvest.
I am looking for tips on :-
How much water to add to the skins, how much sugar, if any, to add, what additives are required, how to make it fizzy etc

Thanks in advance

 

[Jovimaple]

Welcome to WMT!

I had to google piquette wine. Sounds interesting!

As far as how much water and sugar to add, I would think you could use your hydrometer for that.

The fizziness sounds like it's just not degassed or cleared.

For fizzy/carbonated wines, make sure to use beer or champagne bottles. Regular wine bottles aren't made to handle the pressure and can explode.

 

[bearpaw8491]

I make a piquette each year from my muscadine "hulls". I simply return them to the primary after pressing, add 5 gals of water and adjust S/G to 1.090. I seldom have to add additional yeast.
Follow your original recipe from that point forward.
Your resulting wine should be a nice early drinking rosé.
Hope this helps and welcome.

 

[Hazelemere]

As an experiment this year I am going to make some Piquette wines, I have both red and white grapes, and am expecting a good harvest.
I am looking for tips on :-
How much water to add to the skins, how much sugar, if any, to add, what additives are required, how to make it fizzy etc

Thanks in advance

I make piqute and never add water. I use first run sediment pre ferment to soak 1st tun pressed skins for 48 hours with pectic enzyme an 1/8 tsp sulphite per 2 Imperial gallons and then repress. If the Brix on the repress is too low you can can add sugar or honey to say SG 1.085. If the juice is too acidic you can mix it with apple juice to drop the acid.

 

[yanick]

Adding to this thread as I have also tried making piquette this year, very fun outside of the box way of trying things !
I'Ve had some pinot noir that was too sweet and strong (grapes had too much initial sugar, and should have "ameliorated" before starting). I used 5 gallons of this (wasnt going to enjoy), and added to my muscat + malvasia (my orange wine assembly) pumace with water and sugar. Came out pretty good as a first attempt, however I find that adding some carbonation did take it to another level (more refreshing, decrease a bit of the peperry tones). I've added a bit of sugar and water before bottling (in cider type bottles), and its really good ! Here though in Quebec, Canada, local wineries can only do piquette by combining with cider. So I'm trying this but want to see what people think :

QUESTION : If I use some cider that has potassium sorbate (but also add a bit of sugar + water + yeast), to my base piquette, would potassium sorbate inhibit all yeast activity and not give me carbonation ?

I'm doing a 2 bottle attempt :
1liter piquette
200 ml cider (with potassium sorbate in ingredients)
300ml water with 12 g sugar + pinch of rehydrated EC118 yeast.

I'll keep all posted, but curious what you guys think
Thanks !

 

[bearpaw8491]

I wouldn't bet the house and camper on this but I doubt that the amount of sorbate in the cider is enough to prevent the yeast from budding since you've added some extra yeast and sugar. I'd suggest that you add sorbate to be on the safe side. 1/8-1/4 tsp for your volume of piquette should be plenty.

 

[ChuckD]

So how is this different from a “second run” wine… other than light carbonation?

 

[yanick]

So how is this different from a “second run” wine… other than light carbonation?

It is a second run indeed.
I find the light carbonation takes it up a notch and hides a bit of the tartness in this second press wine.
In Quebec, commercial piquette must contain cider to be able to be sold… don’t ask me « why » . But it’s fun to just try things ! No rules apply here is how see this. Might even try to « Lambrusco » (carbonate) a couple bottles of red just out of curiosity to see what it can do to regular old red wine…

 

[yanick]

I wouldn't bet the house and camper on this but I doubt that the amount of sorbate in the cider is enough to prevent the yeast from budding since you've added some extra yeast and sugar. I'd suggest that you add sorbate to be on the safe side. 1/8-1/4 tsp for your volume of piquette should be plenty.

Thanks !
That’s perfect actually, I’m looking to have a bit of carbonation. Was concerned the sorbate would inhibit, but, having looked at my half gallon right now, seems I see some activity