Piquenique (Tess Bryant & Niccolo Coturri) 2020 Cuvee Annie: Late Harvest

Piquenique is a project from Nic Coturri and Tess Bryant, based in the San Juan Islands, in the northernmost tip of Washington state. The area has a long history of fruit cultivation, from berries to orchard fruits, and the potential to support grape growing for many decades, as the conditions in California and Oregon will likely be impossible for vines by the middle of this century. Nico and Tess have dozens of incredible bottlings that they produce, and we will share our favorites later this year! Cuvee Annie is made from 20 varieties of late season apples.

Rather than try to explain the process, I will quote the notes from the Jose Pastor website: "Apples were processed at the cellar with a tiny apple chipper and pressed in a small manually operated basket press lined with local hay. The pressed juice was added by hand to glass demijohns and small stainless-steel tanks to ferment with native yeasts and without temperature control. When fermentation was nearly finished, the wine was racked once off the dense lees, and bottled by hand with a small amount of residual sugar to finish fermentation in the ancestral method."

The result is a delicious ancestral Pet-Nat/cider, with fabulous mineral structure and dry extract, bursts of apple flavor but an all around very dry and structured finish. A perfect way to start the feast or cleanse your palate mid-way through!