Sparkling NA Wines for the New Year
A look at non-alcoholic sparkling wines, sparkling wine alternatives, and sparkling wine cocktails you can drink during the holidays and all year round.
If you’ve come to love non-alcoholic wines, chances are your first was bubbly. While we’ve seen incredible growth in the varieties of non-alcoholic wines, the first to grab the market have been the sparkling kind, and they still remain prevalent. According to Wine Business, “Sparkling whites were the most common product [among non-alcoholic wines], with 40 SKUs in the market in 2023.”
There are more than a few reasons for this but none more compelling than sparkling wines simply mimic sparkling wine with alcohol better than still wines do. According to Jess Smith, oenologist and director of operations at Surely non-alcoholic wines, “NA Sparkling Wines from a technical perspective are easier to make as the carbonation really gives weight and mouthfeel compared to a still NA wine.”
But sparkling wines are about much more than taste. They have come to embody celebration. The litany of sparkling wines with alcohol––from Champagne to Prosecco––are shared throughout the world during festive times, corks popping and bubbles cascading down the bottle.
In my hemisphere, there’s no time the bubbly flows with more alacrity than the winter holidays culminating in New Year’s Eve. There’s also no reason that this tradition shouldn’t extend to the non-alcoholic variety. As such, I reached out to a few friends to share their favorites and how they use them.
Camille Vidal, founder of La Maison Wellness and an advocate for mindful drinking, is no stranger to sparkling wine. As someone who grew up in the south of France, she says, “I grew up sitting in the garden enjoying an aperitif with my parents, those moments are precious memories to me and something I carried with me around the world and is still part of my rituals, so for me a spritz is almost a daily practice!” A spritz is typically made with a liqueur and sparkling wine.
Even so, Vidal says she’s not a huge fan of New Year’s Eve. “I think it holds way too much expectations of having to be a BIG night, one to remember,” say Vidal, “For me a good NYE is one spend at home with loved ones reflecting on the year and dreaming of what the next one will unfold while sipping on delicious mindful cocktails.” Either way, she recommends a few of her favorite sparkling wines, including Thomson & Scott “Noughty,” Oddbird, and ALT.
While those are de-alcoholized wines, she also enjoys tea-based wine alternatives such as REAL Naturally Fermented Sparkling Tea or Copenhagen Sparkling Tea. They use tea––also a fermented product––to fill in for the complex notes of fermented grapes. These, she describes, are perfect for “wine occasions” such as New Year’s Eve.
Joshua James, a former career bartender and owner of Ocean Beach Cafe in San Francisco––the first non-alcoholic cafe on the west coast––recommends different non-alcoholic sparkling wines based on how they’re being used. For instance, also a fan of the spritz, James prefers using Ribo Mousseux, an Alsatian dry muscat with his Intentional Sbagliato (see recipe below) and spritzes. But, for drinking on their own, his favorites are the Prima Pave’s Grand Cuvee and Kolonne Null’s Cuvée Blanc Sparkling. According to him, each for their own unique qualities.
Prima Pave’s Grand Cuvee, a Blanc de Blanc (100% chardonnay) has, “…ripe red apple and is bone dry with significant brioche notes to remind you of high end champagne,” says James. The Kolonne Null, on the other hand, is more aromatic. James adds, “The blossom and floral candy notes on the nose and palate project perceived sweetness, while also being dry.”
While these are amazing options, Smith believes there’s still room for growth. For her, this is why some brands such as Surely are experimenting with adding additional ingredients to their de-alcoholized wine base. Smith says, “…the use of innovative ingredients to help build back the palate [lost from de-alcoholization] are being explored … in order to fill that gap.”
I love this approach and have shared as much before. In fact, some of the best non-alcoholic sparkling wines aren’t wine alone and are made from fruit besides grapes.
I’m a big fan of Manufaktur Jörg Geiger’s PriSecco wine alternatives made from apple and pear cider. These are a far cry from the sickly sweet ciders I celebrated with as a child. They’re well balanced and complex, intimating fine wines while retaining their unique character. Geiger uses heritage pears and apples and even some foraged ingredients in crafting his sparkling wine alternatives in the Swabian Alps of Germany.
But you can also add your own ingredients if the sparkling wine isn’t suited to your tastes. One of my favorite cocktails is the wine equivalent of an Old Fashioned, the Champagne Cocktail. It’s incredibly easy to make. You simply douse a sugar cube in bitters, such as All the Bitter Aromatic Bitters, pour chilled sparkling wine, and added a lemon peel. It adds body and depth, instantly improving any sparkling wine.
Whether you try more classically-styled sparkling wines, sparkling wine alternatives, or even sparking wine cocktails, these are just a few options to choose from. And, even better, you don’t have to choose. Try them all. I don’t mean open them all as Auld Lang Syne blares out from the speakers at midnight on New Year’s Eve. I mean, make a different New Year’s resolution this year––to drink more bubbly year round.
Champagne Cocktail
1 sugar cube
Lemon peel
Coat a sugar cube with bitters and add to a wine glass. Pour chilled Champagne over cube and garnish with lemon peel.
Intentional Sbagliato
Recipe by Joshua James
1 ounce Martini & Rossi Vibrante
3/4 ounce Wilderton Bittersweet Apertivo
4 ounce Ribo Sparkling Muscat
Gently add ice into wine glass while tipping glass at an extreme angle, to preserve carbonation. Express large orange twist into wine glass and garnish.
Derek Brown is an author, award-winning bartender, NASM-certified wellness coach, and founder of Positive Damage, Inc.
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