Faux Wines Are Making A Splash
We’ve all been on that low-fat, high-fiber diet for a week and we’re feeling pretty virtuous.
Adding non-alcoholic wines to this healthy regime might make you positively noble.
There’s been much written about the benefits of sipping a glass of wine with dinner. But for people who prefer not to consume alcohol, that’s just not practical.
And for many wine lovers, there are times when we would like to enjoy the taste and aesthetics associated with wine without the buzz. During lunch, for instance. Or right before piloting a jumbo jet.
Enter the burgeoning business of faux wine. The producers are still small in number, maybe because the process is so expensive to undertake, but sales have exceeded expectations.
The wine is first made using the same techniques employed for producing premium varietals, and then vintners turn around and take out the alcohol.
The undisputed king of non-alcoholic wines is Ariel, a division of J. Lohr Winery. Ariel makes a full lineup from varietals including chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, white zinfandel and others. They even produce a sparkler packaged elegantly in a pretty bottle with a champagne-style cork.
The giant white zinfandel producer Sutter Home also got into the act a couple of years ago with a line of alcohol-free wine cleverly called Fre.
And St. Regis, the lone non-alcoholic wine producer for many years, is still very much in the business with a lineup that also includes some fruit wines.
Many in the industry use a process called reverse osmosis, which for those of us who barely passed chemistry, is simply running the wine through filters to remove the alcohol.
On paper, it all sounds so promising. It’s too bad the finished product is little better than fancy grape juice - at least the non-alcoholic wines I’ve sampled.
I recently tried the Ariel brut, which is considered by many to be the cream of the non-alcohol crop. While it was pretty in the glass and the bubbles were nice, it tasted like watered-down apple juice to me. And a bottle of it costs around $10.
Unlike any number of decent non-alcoholic beers, faux wine bears only a remote resemblance to the real thing.
Why is that?
Mike Conway, winemaker at Latah Creek in Spokane, said when you take away the alcohol, you also remove some of the flavor components.
“There are umpteen different types of alcohol in wine and some of them are directly tied to flavors,” he said.
It’s hard not to make comparisons between the real and alcohol-free versions, said John Allen, who sells wine at The Four Seasons in downtown Spokane. “And even with all the improvements in the way they are made, they still taste pallid. They just don’t have the robust characteristics of a fine premium wine,” he said.
Still, the market for alcohol-free wines is growing.
Dale Hammond, the wine steward at the University City Rosauers, said the product sold like gangbusters, especially during the holidays.
So, if you know what to expect - a lightly flavored drink that tastes something like wine - alcohol-free wine is an alternative. But for the price, which can be as much as premium wine, I’d rather sip designer water or sparkling cider.
On the other hand, a colleague of mine who doesn’t drink alcohol thinks I’m missing the point. The question, he says, shouldn’t be whether no-alcohol wine is as good as the real thing; the question should be whether it is an acceptable alternative for people who like wine, but not alcohol. He votes an emphatic yes.
Take two pills and call me in the morning: A French pharmaceutical company has taken all the fun out of enjoying wine for health’s sake.
They have come up with a pill called the French Paradox, which purports to contain the active ingredients of red wine (though it’s probably not something you want to put in a glass and swirl around).
The French Paradox pill is currently available only in England, where Brits are no doubt washing it down with a pint of Guinness Stout.
By the numbers: For some shoppers, buying wine continues to be a daunting project. Some consumers have come to rely on wine publications and their ratings as a way to sort through the sheer volume of choices.
For those folks, there’s a handy-dandy pocket-sized book that condenses ratings from eight major publications.
It focuses on wines that are widely available and are drinking well now.
“The Pocketlist of Wines for $15 or Less” is broken down into red and white wine categories, as well as rose and sparkling wines.
Varietals are grouped together and the ratings are averaged out to letter grades.
The ‘91 Kiona chardonnay, for example, gets an A-minus and the ‘92 Snoqualmie muscat canelli gets an A (and a big gold star, no doubt).
Personally, I think grades should be confined to junior high school and swimsuit competitions, but the approach is a refreshing break from the 100-point rating scale.
The guide also deserves credit for covering a lot of territory. California and Northwest wines are included, as are a few listings from other wine-producing states such as Wisconsin. (Yes, they make wine in Wisconsin. Probably to go with all that cheese.)
It also lists suggested retail prices, which is helpful.
The Pocketlist is published quarterly and subscriptions are $21.95. A single copy is available for $5.95. To order, call (800) 524-1005.
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Leslie Kelly The Spokesman-Review