UKC

Alcohol free wine

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 The New NickB 22 Jan 2021

Or at least below 0.5%.

My wife isn’t allowed to drink alcohol at the moment due to some medication, this is likely to be the case for a while.

We have been buying some alternatives. Alcohol free gin (Gordon’s) in a G&T basically tastes like Gordon’s, which is acceptable. She also quite likes the alcohol free Martini with tonic. Wine however is not so good.

She said red was better than the white, I tasted the red, which didn’t taste of much. Any recommendations?

cb294 22 Jan 2021
In reply to The New NickB:

Grape juice.

Alcohol free beers can be good, but wine just does not seem to work. Not surprising if you consider how the alcohol is removed!

CB

 Blue Straggler 22 Jan 2021
In reply to cb294:

How IS the alcohol removed? Is it some nasty brutal method?

I did try one once and it was like having expensive flat Vimto but just slightly gloopier. Never again! 

OP The New NickB 22 Jan 2021
In reply to cb294:

The red I tried was basically just grape juice. I suggested getting some beer.

 Angrypenguin 22 Jan 2021
In reply to Blue Straggler:

Alcohol removal is done by either distillation or reverse osmosis. There is nothing particularly bad about either method, it's just that they aren't entirely selective to removing the alcohol, they also take out components with similar chemical properties. This means loosing a proportion of other similarly volatile compounds which give the wine its flavour.

Post edited at 12:40
 elsewhere 22 Jan 2021
In reply to The New NickB:

The 0.5% beers are better than the 0.0% beers.

I wonder if you could blend something if you have a bottle open?

Two teaspoons wine (10ml) per 250ml grape juice.

1:25 to take 12% to 0.5%. 

 Blue Straggler 22 Jan 2021
In reply to Angrypenguin:

Thanks. Presumably "alcohol-free" or low alcohol beer is made differently (from scratch) which is why it's OK. You seem be describing taking a normal wine and removing the alcohol. 

 Wimlands 22 Jan 2021
In reply to The New NickB:

This one was the best I found..you can get it at Waitrose.

https://greatwine.co.uk/jj-leitz-eins-zwei-zero-riesling-alcohol-free?gclid...

 deepsoup 22 Jan 2021
In reply to Blue Straggler:

There are some <0.5% beers that are brewed that way and not subsequently processed to remove the alcohol.  There's a Dutch company called Vandestreek who make a 'Playground IPA' that way and it's absolutely delicious.  Much better than any of the low alcohol ales I've found in the supermarket.  Some of the low alcohol ciders are very good though.

 deepsoup 22 Jan 2021
In reply to The New NickB:

As an alternative to white wine, cider perhaps?  Sheppy's do a nice 0.5% one that you can often find in the supermarket.

In reply to The New NickB:

I’ve never found a good alcohol free wine. The last before I stopped buying any that was the “best” to my taste was Echo Falls Tisane Alcohol Free Sparkling Infusion. Has green tea in it.

Alcohol free beers and cider, however, are generally so much better than the wines I’ve found. I should say that I’ve not tied any alcohol free wines for at least 4 yrs now so there maybe newer ones that are much better. Couldn’t be any worse as some were just fit to be poured down sink!

 Angrypenguin 22 Jan 2021
In reply to Blue Straggler:

Beer can be either brewed low alcohol or post processed. One of the reasons that beer can be brewed low alcohol because normal beer is naturally lower in alcohol than wine, meaning less of its flavour profile is directly derived from the fermentation process. Some of the flavour comes from the different hops and malts and things. Having said that, I think brewing a good 1% beer still isn't easy.

Wine is mostly just grape juice that is fermented, all of the interest comes from the fermentation. If you only ferment to 1% then you basically still have grape juice. An example of this is Moscato D’Asti which is wine where the fermentation is stopped at about 5%. It is a sweet desert wine because of the incomplete fermentation of the sugars. This means low alcohol wine has to be made as high alcohol wine and post processed.

 Angrypenguin 22 Jan 2021
In reply to Climbing Pieman:

> I’ve never found a good alcohol free wine. The last before I stopped buying any that was the “best” to my taste was Echo Falls Tisane Alcohol Free Sparkling Infusion. Has green tea in it.

This is the thing - because they take the flavour out with the alcohol they then have to put stuff like botanicals back in. In a way it becomes a grape gin!

In reply to Angrypenguin:

When I read years ago how they made wine alcohol free and the unavoidable side effects of removal of a lot of flavouring components, I gave up on trying to get a nice one. I’ve nothing against manufacturers adding back in botanicals, but I was just frustrated by generally low quality (at the time) of the end result. May as well buy non alcoholic drinks not pretending to be a wine instead!

In reply to The New NickB:

Ive tried alcohol free wine and as Im not drinking during the week now, some Brewdog AF too. Didn't get on with wine but the AF was OK. In the end I gave up. If I want cold and fizzy I have San Pellegrino lemon or grapefruit, a horlicks or just a glass of water.

I struggle with the notion of AF drinks. They never taste as good are not cheap so may as well just have something else.

 Snyggapa 22 Jan 2021
In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

I find the Heineken 0 and San Miguel 0 drinkable, not have a lot of luck with anything else. 

I wouldn't drink regular Heineken but the zero isn't bad. Still experimenting but often disappointed

 nathan79 22 Jan 2021
In reply to Snyggapa:

Erdinger Alkoholfrei, Franziskaner Alcojol free, St Peter's Without and Without Gold and Brooklyn Special Effects are all good low/no alcohol beers. Avoid Cobra Zero, it's by far the worst.

I tried alcohol free wine years ago, don't recall it tasting like anything other than a mixed fruit juice.

 yorkshireman 22 Jan 2021
In reply to The New NickB:

I'm a big fan of the Martini Floreale and Vibrante drinks mixed with tonic. They were great in the summer (especially with the two huge heatwaves we had in southern France) daytimes without feeling like I needed to go to sleep at 6pm. I guess the drink they're replacing (eg. Fiero) aren't really sophisticated flavours like you get with wine.

I like nice ales generally but always had a crate of Heineken for when I fancied a cold, crisp lager (again more of a summer thing). I've completely stopped getting the regular and only get the 0.0 now. You can tell the difference, but hardly, and since the whole point of that kind of drink was to knock back a cold 250ml bottle as a quick refreshment hardly touching the sides, rather than sit and savour it, having the alcohol didn't serve much purpose.

I like the Brooklyn Special Effect <0.5%, but its hard to find here. Haven't tried Brewdog yet but about to order a mixed crate off them.

I tried JNPR alcohol-free 'gin' which frankly was rubbish.

 hazeysunshine 22 Jan 2021
In reply to The New NickB:

Nosecco is not bad - AF prosecco

 girlymonkey 22 Jan 2021
In reply to The New NickB:

Would a fancy juice which isn't pretending to be wine be a bit nicer? I don't drink because I don't like it, so would never opt for an alcohol free beer or wine etc, but some juices and frizzy drinks are nice. Green bottle do some nice ones.

When it comes to food I generally don't like any pretend stuff, so no fake meat or fake milk etc. If I am avoiding an ingredient I prefer to have something different rather than a fake of the real thing which is never as nice, in my opinion!

In reply to Snyggapa:

Have you tried Leffe 0% which has only become available local to me late last year? It’s not quite the same flavour as original Leffe which I do like as a treat, but it that is to your taste it would be worth trying the 0%.

Also I like Erdinger Alkoholfrei. 


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...