We’ve all heard tales of vintage wines or 30-year-old whiskies being sold for eye-watering sums. Yet last month, the world of wine saw the launch of its first ever non-alcoholic fizz to smash the £100 mark.
French Bloom’s La Cuvée Vintage 2022 will set you back a punchy £109 a bottle.
Four years and millions of euros have been sunk into its research and development. But can this fact alone justify the lofty price to consumers? After all, if you’re going to cough up that much cash, you’d at least hope a glass or two of your new acquisition will help you forget the impact on your bank balance. This fizz won’t even get you tipsy.
French Bloom La Cuvée Vintage 2022 will set you back a punchy £109 a bottle
Michelin Guide director Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger created the luxury, non-alcoholic brand with model Constance Jablonski
La Cuvée is the third wine from this luxury, non-alcoholic brand, created by Michelin Guide director Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger and model Constance Jablonski.
The pair, great pals, were sick of a lack of genuinely interesting, non-alcoholic options when they went out to dinner.
Their first sparkling releases, Le Blanc and Le Rosé, raised eyebrows with an ambitious £35-a-bottle price tag.
But even cynics agreed that in a sea of disappointing, booze-free wine alternatives, these were as close as you could get to the real thing – not just some sweet, Prosecco-style fizz, but a deliciously complex crémant, or even champagne.
If £35 is eye-watering though, how on earth can one justify £109?
Clearly, that sum is in part down to the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into creating La Cuvée 2022.
Maggie and husband Rodolphe Frèrejean-Taittinger have spent four years of trial and error trying to devise a unique winemaking process, which includes low-temperature vacuum distillation to remove alcohol gently.
‘Just because you have a fabulous, fine wine to start with, does not mean it’s going to taste good when you remove the alcohol,’ Rodolphe, also chief executive of Frerejean Freres, explains.
He goes on to say that normal dealcoholisation techniques often ‘leave a wine tasting unfresh, unbalanced and tired’.
Indeed, most of the non-alcoholic fizz on our supermarket shelves is made by taking the alcohol out of normal wine using various techniques such as reverse osmosis or vacuum distillation, then adding a lot of sugar and flavours back in, in a bid to restore that balance. This rarely works well.
The French Bloom team has instead created a completely different kind of wine, using Chardonnay from the warmer Languedoc region in southern France that is picked even earlier than it might be for normal fizz.
Early picking means the grapes give the wine the structure, fruit and acidity to better withstand the dealcoholisation process.
In short, unlike others, it’s a wine made to be dealcoholised. There is flavour and texture coming from new oak and a teensy pinch of a natural wine yeast element to add complexity to the flavour profile. The result is non-alcoholic fizz that tastes nothing like anything you will have tried before.
‘Don’t look at it as “wine minus something”,’ says Maggie. ‘Look at it as “wine plus plus”.’
Here is my verdict on the new Rolls-Royce of no-booze bubbles, plus four more premium non-alcoholic fizzes to try…
La Cuvée has an impressive texture, body and balance. A great gastro wine
Champagne without the kick
French Bloom La Cuvée Vintage 2022 (0.0% ABV), £109, Harrods
La Cuvée aims squarely to deliver a similar flavour and texture profile to seriously aged, vintage champagne, which is no mean feat for a two-year-old, low-calorie, carbonated wine without sulphites. Amazingly, it succeeds. Mid-caramel in colour with fine bubbles and pronounced flavours of brioche and nuts, with a toffee-apple note, La Cuvée has an impressive texture, body and balance. A great gastro wine – but can someone else buy it for me, please?
4/5
Wild Idol does a decent job, however the balance isn’t quite perfect
Beware hidden sugars
Wild Idol Non-Alcoholic Sparkling White (0.0% ABV), £30, ocado.com
The first premium non-alcoholic fizz available, Wild Idol does a decent job. Very crisp with refreshing citrus, apple and floral notes, however the balance isn’t quite perfect, and there are lots of hidden extras like sugar and preservatives.
2/5
With notes of white peach, rose and subtle strawberry, French Bloom Le Rosé is the best non-alcoholic rosé fizz I’ve tried. Properly premium
Rosé that rivals Moët
French Bloom Le Rosé (0.0% ABV), £35, fortnumandmason.com
From French Bloom’s more accessible range, this is a fabulously crisp and dry rosé with notes of white peach, rose and subtle strawberry. With its saline core, it’s the best non-alcoholic rosé fizz I’ve tried. Properly premium – a serious Moët alternative.
5/5
Each glass of Bubbles With Benefits is said to include at least 15 per cent of your daily intake of vitamins and minerals
Bubbles with benefits
Wildlife Botanicals Bubbles With Benefits (0.5% ABV), £15, threshers.co.uk
I’m a big fan of these Spanish bubbles, with a splash of sweetness and mood-boosting botanical additions, including ashwagandha – said to have calming properties, lowers blood pressure and inflammation and boosts the immune system – and damiana, a wild shrub said to help with mental and physical stamina, as well as acting as an aphrodisiac. Each glass also claims to include at least 15 per cent of your daily intake of vitamins and minerals.
That said, this won’t be for everyone, but it’s perfect with afternoon tea when you need to drive home
3/5
Kolonne Null is a posh German fizz – a decent gastro option and good value, too
Best-value fizz
The Ivy Collection, Kolonne Null Non-Alcoholic (0.14% ABV), Cuvée Blanc, Sparkling White Wine, £16, zerozilchzip.co.uk
This posh German fizz has riper notes of pear and yellow plum. The touch of residual sweetness means it will pair nicely with salty cheese and less sweet desserts. Of a style, but a decent gastro option and good value.
3/5
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