Year zero: A lockdown tasting of alcohol-free wine

Year zero: A lockdown tasting of alcohol-free wine
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Sales of light, low alcohol, and alcohol-free beer and wines are booming worldwide. Graham Howe comments on the trend to zero alcohol in South Africa’s puritanical era of prohibition.

The weekly drudgery of shopping in supermarkets, mini-markets and cafes just ain’t the same anymore. When you’ve bought all the boring basics, the household provisions and kitchen groceries, who can resist lingering in the alcohol aisle, rewarded by a splurge on luxury brands of craft beer, still and sparkling wine – the last items to go into the trolley and past the till? Suddenly the thrill has gone – the adults-only shelves once creaking with tempting wine brands and alternate varieties are now filled with non-alcoholic beer and alcohol-free wine, non-alcoholic pre-mixed gin and shock, horror, healthy fruit and vegetable juices. All the mixers, soda, tonic, colas and snacks look awfully lonely up there on the shelf.

Hands up if you’d even heard the term de-alcoholised or stared numbly at it on the supermarket shelf before corona (BC) and the on-off-on after corona (AC) prohibition on the sale, supply or transport of alcohol in South Africa. In my travels around many dry countries in the Middle East, I’ve had to settle for alcohol free beer on many occasions. Somehow the more full-bodied crisp, malty, hopped taste of zero alcohol beer, and the comforting feel of an ice-cold bottle in your hand of ErdingerAlkohol Frei, Beck’s Blue or Heineken 00in a dry desert climate makes up for the kick of alcohol. Talking of which, try Devil’s Peak’s Hero, the best local alcohol-free beer I’ve tasted. But let’s move onto de-alcoholised wine here.

While de-alcoholising – yup, the spellchecker just gave me the all-clear, it is a participle and verb – I decided to do some research into the category, online and in the glass. I set the mood by playing Prohibition Blues, a song by Jorma Kaukonen, the legendary guitarist of Jefferson Airplane, the great Frisco band in the sixties when folk took every drug imaginable. He laments, “This ’ol country sure ain’t dry and dry will never be seen. Prohibition is just a scheme, a fine money-making machine. Well prohibition has killed more people than Sherman ever seen. If they don’t get whiskey they’ll take to dope, cocaine and morphine”. Sounds familiar. Check out Jorma’s virtual corona concerts online at the ripe old age of 80.

For a beverage to be classified as non-alcoholic in South Africa it must be under 0,5% ABV. But it turns out there are subtle distinctions between alcohol-free, non-alcoholic and de-alcoholised wines, depending on how the wines are made – even though the terms are often used interchangeably - which, in turn, affect the aroma and taste. Alcohol-free 0.0% ‘wines’ made without fermenting the grapes tend to have less flavour, taste sweeter – even if they are made and labeled as wine grape varieties. Whereas de-alcoholised wines usually undergo fermentation, through processes of reverse osmosis, cone-spinning and vacuum distillation, techniques which remove alcohol, some tannin but retain essential wine aromas and flavours.

In a fascinating article, “Non-alcoholic Vs De-alcoholised wine” (Mar 2019), Carmen Botes concludes, “Even the best non-alcoholic or de-alcoholised wines don’t taste or smell as good as the real thing. In most cases, some of the flavours don’t make it through the distilling process. In wine, the aromas (and thus flavours) are transmitted from the surface of the wine through evaporation of alcohol. The process of removing the alcohol from wine can also remove the tannins, which give wines their signature texture and body. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not saying alcohol-free alternatives to wine aren’t good — in fact, they can sometimes even be better!” 9lives - Non-alcoholic vs de-alcoholised wine

First up in my prohibition tasting line-up of de-alcoholised wines in my home speakeasy is Van Loveren’s Almost Zero (0.05%)  range of Wonderful White (fresh zippy apple, citrus and tropical highlights), Radiant Red (a succulent mulberry wine rated three stars by Platter’s) and Ravishing Rosé (a wine with charming Muscat and Turkish delight nuances). I was delighted to find tasting notes in Platter’s 2020 South African Wine Guide – though the addition of definitions of non-alcoholic, alcohol free and de-alcoholised wine in their useful wine term glossary would be useful in the 2021 prohibition edition. 

The bright and funky label and packaging is up to Van Loveren’s usual high standard – and compensates for the lack of alcohol in the wine. The Rosé is my pick of the bunch. The near-absence of alcohol means by law it can't be called wine, although this de-alcoholised wonder begins life as such. The wine is gently spun, allowing it to spread thinly across steel cones and the alcohol to evaporate. What's left is an aperitif style with distinctive wine body, color and flavour. With less than 75% fewer kilojoules in each glass (and 2.2g/100g of sugar and 4.2g/100g of carbohydrates per bottle), it is the perfect drink to help shed lockdown weight.

I’ve always enjoyed the extra light range (9,5% ABV) of the best-selling dry cultivar wines pioneered by Robertson Winery, especially when on a low-kilojoule diet or detox, particularly the Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. I really enjoyed their dry non-alcoholic sparkling wine launched serendipitously earlier in 2020 – which extends their sweet red and white low alcohol sparklers. I think the fizz and crisp bite of sparkling wines like Caprice are a style well-suited to alcohol-free drinking in the prohibition era. Even the Pure Prairie League might approve. Is this winery forward-thinking or what? Delightfully dry with a lively bead, vibrant flavours of pear and mandarin come to the fore with nuances of orange blossom.

Next up in my prohibition line-up is the new Natura range released by Leopard’s Leap in mid-2019 – a de-alcoholised Classic White (a blend of Chenin and Muscat) and Classic Red (a blend of Cinsault and Cabernet Sauvignon). “The wine is heated to 30 °C and pumped into the cone which has layers of discs spinning, creating a thin layer of wine. This is done under vacuum to lower the boiling point to 30 °C which causes the alcohol to evaporate,” explains Hein Koegelenberg, CEO of Leopard's Leap. You would have to drink 9 bottles of Natura per hour to reach the legal alcohol limit. The Classic Red contains a tenth of the kilojoules(kj)  ordinarily found in red wine – 30kj/100 ml compared to the average 364 kj/100ml.

I also came across the new Darling Cellars range of low-calory, vegan-friendly, alcohol-free wines. Could a wine capture the zeitgeist of the Covid-19 era more perfectly? The winemaker emphasises that “De-alcoholised wine is different from other ‘wine alternatives’, such as alcohol-free wine or light wine in that it starts out as wine produced as any other ‘normal’ wine, and then the alcohol is extracted by using clever technology that preserves the wine-origins best”. Further, low alcohol wine should still reflect the grape, the vineyard and the terroir.

Sourced from cool climate vines, the grapes for the de-alcoholised range are “harvested at optimum ripeness to ensure the finest varietal characteristics to be enjoyed in its purest and natural form, without the restrictions of alcohol. Low alcohol should not detract from your taste experience”. Darling Cellars uses spinning cone technology at low temperature under vacuum to leave no more than 0.5% alcohol per volume. The De-alcoholised White has flavours of ripe tropical fruit, yellow peaches and gooseberries complimented by a fresh acidity; a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Grenache, the De-alcoholised Rosé has a light salmon pink colour, with ripe strawberry and sweet candyfloss character; and the De-alcoholised Red has delightful ripe red fruit, with crushed black pepper, dried rose petal, candied cherry and well-integrated tannins.

Reg Holder of Holder Vineyards in Stellenbosch, former winemaker at Delheim and Neil Ellis, launched the first de-alcoholised wines made in South Africa under his Lautus label (Latin for pure, elegant and sumptuous) in 2017. Special cool-climate vineyard sites that produce wines of aromatic complexity and exceptional balance combined with cutting-edge technology are used to make The Savvy White, Savvy Red and Savvy Rosé wines – all under 0,5% ABV - found in top retail stores like Woolworths. He says, “As much as it is about vineyards, grapes, yeasts and science, the ethos of Lautus lies in the magic of unique wine moments without being restricted by choice, by alcohol content or side effects the next day.”

The alcohol is removed at low temperatures under vacuum spinning via spinning cone technology in two stages. On the initial pass, 100% of the wine’s volatile flavour and aromatic essence is captured and set aside. During the second pass, the neutral alcohol is removed from the wine before the essence from the first pass is added back to the de-alcoholised wine to create all the flavour of a premium wine without alcoholic content.

Holder Vineyards added a de-alcoholised sparkling wine in 2019. Reg says the new bubbly showcases pure aromas of white peach, citrus blossom and fresh apple in a brut (dry) style with fine lively bubbles that contributes to an elegant finish. The Chardonnay base is left on the fermentation lease for four months prior to racking to retain all the flavour. During this time, the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation that will both add complexity and mouthfeel to the wine. A small portion is then aged in oak for added toasty complexity.”

One of the main trends at Prowein 2019 was the focus on lower alcohol wines. “Demand for lower alcohol wines is strong”, said Olivier Bourdet-Pees, MD of Plaimont Producers. “They work well outside meals. For this type of drinking occasion, beer is growing very strongly and stealing a march over us”. Of its Voici mon secret label, “Naturally low in alcohol” means no artificial means are used to lower alcohol content to around 9% ABV”. Les Domaines Auriol also revealed its Belles du Sud 9% range made using a continuous filtration process to preserve aromatic concentration. “There is increased pressure from the authorities to prevent alcoholism. We are providing a product that addresses the issue”, says Claude Vialade. (26 Mar 2019) www.vitisphere.com/news-89256.

The Loire wine firm Gratien et Meyer, the second-largest player in the de-alcoholised sparkling wine market in France with its Festillant label (1.5 million bottles), launched a new sparkling wine at Vinexpo Bordeaux 2019. Targeted at the French market, alcohol-free InfiniBulle (40 000 bottles) is designed as a traditional wine product through its packaging which targets regular drinkers. Frédérique Lenoir, marketing director of the French subsidiary of Freixenet and Henkell says the non-alcoholic sparkling wine segment has seen the strongest growth in sparkling wines in 2019. “This is a higher growth rate than for Proseccolast year”. (Vitisphere, 30 May 2019) www.vitisphere.com/news-89636

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