Nick has been working with this vineyard since he started out on his own in 2010 and in 2018 started producing Janko’s wines. The focus of the Gabernik ‘pikolas’ (or piquettes) is to make that perfect summer/post-harvest thirst-quenching drink. One that is low in alcohol but carries just enough to make things interesting! This pikola is literal by-product of the Gabernik white blend, however there is more attention to detail than just that. In making a pikola, Nick feels that nailing the cleanest fermenting conditions is paramount to a precise and expressive drink. He is also focused on finding that perfect amount of additional fermenting juice to carry the ferment through is the tipping point of the ‘wine’ being too much or too little.
Nick took the pressed skins of the white blend, which includes Muskat Ottonel, Riesling, Rizvanec and Yellow Muskat, then added a bit of water back to the pressings to extract any remaining sugar. The water-laced must began to ferment naturally and after five days was pressed to tank. He then blended a little more than 1/3 of the total volume of fermented juice with unfermented juice to continue the fermentation. When the ferment approached the final stretch it the wine was bottled to finish the fermentation in bottle, giving the brilliant light-sparkling nature of the concoction.