The jury tasted 16 non-alcoholic white wines.
Non-alcoholic and the popularity of soft drinks has grown exponentially in recent years.
At the same time, the range has grown: in addition to the drinks in Alko, products in large supermarkets were included in this test for non-alcoholic white wines, and the number of wines tasted was as high as 16.
Non-alcoholic in the case of wines, one sometimes wonders why, in general, one should first make wine and then remove alcohol from it, why not directly make juice? The reason is the taste of the product: when the wine is fermented, the sugar in the juice produces not only alcohol but also new, wine-like aromas.
With the help of various modern techniques, alcohol can be separated from wine efficiently but in such a way that the aromas of the wine are preserved.
However, alcohol is of great importance for the structure of the taste of the wine, it creates a fullness of taste. To prevent the non-alcoholic wine from tasting very thin, a grape juice concentrate or sugar is added to give it fullness. For this reason, non-alcoholic wines typically have 30 to 40 grams of sugar per liter, meaning they are quite sweet.
Due to the balance of the mouthfeel, the manufacturers also adjust the acidity, which gives a restrained feeling of sweetness and adds freshness.
The addition of grape juice brings a wealth of pure fruity, juicy aromas to the wine. Herein lies the problem, as the wine can then become too juicy.
This was revealed in the test, as the essence of some drinks was richly juicy instead of vinous.
Term non-alcoholic does not always mean that the product has exactly zero alcohol content. In stores and Alko, products containing 0.5 per cent alcohol are also classified as non-alcoholic.
The reason is at least that alcohol is difficult to remove completely. The process is technically complex, and often small amounts of alcohol are intentionally left or left in the product. The alcohol content of the beverages tasted in the HS test can be found in the table below.
Wines the tasting panel was positively surprised by the quality of the non-alcoholic wines, it has clearly improved in a few years, according to the panel’s findings. There are still many products among them that can’t be given more stars than one star, but some of the drinks already had nice flavors and a moderate texture.
The winner of the test was chosen Leitz Eins-Zwei-Zero Riesling Alcohol Free, which brought out the typical Riesling aromas and texture in a balanced and elegant way. The drink is available quite well in Alko’s stores, but it will not be available in the online store until February.
Also ranked second Column / Null Riesling Alc Frei 2019 was found to be purely tasteful and well-structured. There is only a small amount of this wine in Alko’s stores, but it can be ordered from Alko’s online store with a delay of a couple of weeks.
Third place Blue Nun White Alcohol Free it was found to have a short taste, but thanks to its rather delicious aromas and balanced structure, it was one of the top caste drinks. This is also bad in Alko’s stores, but you can get it from the online store with a week’s order. The drink can also be found in many K-Citymarkets, for example.
In the council were Wine Road Portfolio Manager, Master of Wine Heidi Mäkinen, HS wine expert, lecturer at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences Jouko Mykkänen and a journalist for Helsingin Sanomat Katja Bäcksbacka. The practical arrangements were made by the restaurant manager-sommelier of the restaurant Mat Distrikt Elina Turunen. The wines were tasted blind, meaning the tasters did not know which wine they were evaluating at any given time. Heidi Mäkinen’s reviews were ignored for the products represented by Viinitie.
Test score:
***** Top, leaves nothing to be desired, **** Excellent, characteristic, *** Good, high quality and balanced, ** Satisfactory, easy, * Adequate, modestly modest
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