Turn Dry January into Try January with fun Non-alcoholic beverages

No and low alcohol wine is a popular choice among those who are dedicated to Dry January or have religious, personal or medical reasons for this. So what is zero-alcohol wine and how does it vary from the traditional?

No-alcohol wine is a drink that is produced in the same way as a traditional wine but the alcohol is removed. The grape juice goes through the fermentation process, then aging (if needed) and an alcohol removal .This preserves the taste, aroma, and texture of wine, leaving only a minimal alcohol content (usually less than 0,5%).

As independent wine merchants we want to support our customers as best we can and of course continue trading with our local customers even if they've decided to omit or cut down on their booze in take!

How non-alcoholic wine is produced?

1. Traditional production: First, the traditional wine is fermented with all classic techniques.

2. Dealcoholisation: The alcohol content gets removed with one of the following methods: vacuum distillation (wine is heated at a low temperature under vacuum to evaporate the alcohol); reverse osmosis (alcohol is separated through special membranes); a spin cone column (this technology allows to preserve the aromatic compounds while separating the alcohol)

According to many wine articles all over the internet, no-alcohol wine is said to have almost the same taste as regular wine. We have tasted many 0% alcohol wines and can reassure you that this is not true!

Benefits of Non-alcoholic wine: 

1. A healthy choice (it has less calories)

2. Responsibility (for drivers, pregnant and breast-feeding women)

3. Social adaptation (no-alcohol consumers can still be a part of social traditions like toasts or wine tastings) 

4. And most importantly, you can still support your local independent wine merchant if you are cutting out booze!

Our recommendations:

Sparkling: 

Belle & Co Brut Sparkling Wine 0% Alcohol

Lautus De-Alcoholised Sparkling

Bolle Blanc de Blancs non-alcoholic Brut Sparkling

White:

Zeno Alcohol Liberated White 2023 0% alcohol

Lautus De- Alcoholised Savvy White alcohol free

Contrasena Dealcoholised White Wine

Rose:

Alcohol Free Allendorf SAVE WATER DRINK Rosé 2021

Wednesday's Domaine Elan Rosé 0%

Red:

Lautus De- Alcoholised Savvy Red alcohol free

Zeno Alcohol Liberated Red 2023 0% alcohol

Wednesday's Domaine Vignette Red 0%

Other Non- Alcoholic beverages

Wilfred's, Botivo, Pentire and Motherroot are four excellent aperitif style drinks that can be mixed with soda or tonic for very refreshing long drinks or mixed to create tasty mocktails. Chance make a delicious, slightly off-dry cider and Jump Ship brewery have created an excellent IPA. Both full of flavour, but without the hangover. Checkout the range here.

We recently hosted free a non-alcoholic beverage tasting, which was well attended by local residents of St Albans. To add a bit of fun to the event, Victoria and Penny showed off their sabrage skills opening a few bottles of fizz. Check out our Instagram reel here.

It goes without saying that no and low alcohol drinks are not just for January - we will be stocking a wide range all year round from now on - so there are no excuses for not supporting local!