By Simon Taylor & Richard Holloway – Stroud Wine Company
A question we get asked a lot as customers admire our broad selection of wines at the Stroud Wine Co. stores is ‘do you get to try ALL these wines..?’
Well yes, we do. The real pleasure of the job is helping our lovely customers find their next favourite wine, so yes, we try them so we can recommend the pick of the (grape) bunch.
Unlike most careers, we revel in ‘taking our work home with us’. We love it when our enthusiasm for a bottle, be it new to our range or a classic old favourite rubs off onto you. Sadly, however, there is one type of wine that when asked about we will struggle to look you in the eye and at best offer an apologetic ‘we don’t really sell them, or there’s one and it’s okaaay…’ That wine is of course the alcohol-free variety.
Everyone’s experience of alcohol-free wine is identical; we sigh, we shrug as we sheepishly say ‘it’s really not that bad…’ which by that we mean it’s not very good either. So why do we buy it? More to the point, why isn’t it good? Over the past decade non-alcoholic beer production has skyrocketed simply because the quality is so good. Our Bristol Beer Factory ‘Clearhead’ is rightly one of our top selling alcohol free beers, and even the super-strong beer fanatics the Belgians are getting in on it with the 0.3% Delirio Blonde being genuinely delicious.
So what is the problem with alcohol-free wine? The production process is similar to that of regular wine with a crucial step added to remove the alcohol content. Unfortunately this process is expensive, mechanical, and wastes energy.
There are three ways to do it; Vacuum Distillation: gently evaporating alcohol off at a lower temperature, Reverse Osmosis to separate the alcohol from wine flavour compounds and the Spinning Cone Column, using a centrifuge to separate and remove the alcohol. Regrettably, none of these options in our opinion make great wine, particularly as we like to promote minimal intervention and more environmentally friendly wines. Even a little alcohol is integral to the body, flavour and character. It just is.
So how can you do Dry January without doing Dry January? Rejoice! We have the answer. Having studied the rules of Dry January we see a loophole ripe for exploitation; low alcohol wine. We have two brand new and fantastic wines under 10% abv that are full of flavour and are perfect for banishing the Dry January blues.
Mauricio Lorca has decades of experience producing outstanding high altitude wines in Mendoza. Made using grapes from sustainable vineyards, these are proper wines but at a lower abv. First up is the ‘Lorca Lo’ Criolla Blanca at 8.5% with fresh citrus, aromatic floral notes and a refreshingly dry finish. The red is the ‘Lorca Lo’ Malbec at a very respectable 9.5% abv featuring ripe unoaked berries, dark cherries and blueberry notes. A glass of either of these wines are both guilt free and utterly delicious.
As for zero alcohol wine, well we’ll keep trying them but in the meantime we’ll stick with a Henry.
Click HERE to find out more about The Stroud Wine Company
VISIT OUR WITHEYS YARD SHOP
5 Witheys Yard,
55 High Street,
Stroud,
Gloucestershire
GL5 1AS
