The rise of non-alcoholic pairing

There is a slight bustle in the cream-and-gilt dining room at Raffles, Mauro Colagreco's London restaurant, as I settle in to enjoy the five-course menu. Glasses of something that looks like champagne bubble gently on the tables, but what I'm drinking won't give me a headache. Colagreco is the latest chef in the capital who has decided to offer a “sober” or “non-alcoholic” wine pairing.

“Non-alcoholic pairing is something we've drawn attention to in the four months we've been open,” sommelier Vincenzo Arnese tells me as I sip Thomson & Scott's dealcoholized sparkling chardonnay. The trend towards not consuming alcohol is gaining momentum. Participation in “dry January” continues to increase. This year, in the United States, 21% of people took part, while in the United Kingdom more people took part than in the last 10 years combined. And it's not just in January. Generation Z is turning its back on alcohol and younger people are more likely not to drink.

Arnese tells me that their non-alcoholic pairing is vegan, gluten-free, and alcohol-free, rather than just low-alcohol. And to design it he threw the regulations out the window.

I try a “lettuce”, Colagreco's signature dish (with cockle sauce and vermouth). If you opt for the wine pairing, it is accompanied with vermouth, but in the case of the sober menu, it comes with a Seedlip Garden 108 gin cocktail infused with peas and mint, paired with non-alcoholic vermouth, infused with marine succulents and seasoned with lovage oil.

To accompany the chocolate and burnt rosemary ice cream for dessert, there is a cocktail made with Crossip, a non-alcoholic alternative to whiskey. “Sometimes we are inspired by the dish; If there is a star ingredient, we highlight it. Other dishes are combined with drinks,” says Arnese.

At Michelin-starred restaurant Sollip in London Bridge, general manager Vita Gargiulo says non-alcoholic pairings have been just as popular as wine pairings, split 50/50. Here, all non-alcoholic pairing drinks are made in-house. “Everything is very very creative. There is always a difficult ingredient, but you have to try to make it fit, like a puzzle.” Gargiulo points out that with wine there are established rules and with non-alcoholic pairing it is the same idea. “You want the drink to pair well with the food, but you can use almost anything in the kitchen.”

A starter of noodles with squid is accompanied by sweet pear juice, with a touch of fermented pear. Creating a non-alcoholic pairing is more laborious than uncorking a bottle of wine, Gargiulo says. “We thought our mullet dish would pair well with a Tom Collins cocktail, so instead of gin, we used juniper berries infused for three days; “The kitchen makes cranberry syrup and we mix it into a cocktail.”

Sober pairing is usually cheaper than with wine. At the Colagreco restaurant it costs 70 euros, compared to the 146 it costs with wine. Other London restaurants offering non-alcoholic pairings include Da Terra, The Water House Project and La Dame de Pic. The establishments affirm that it is not only teetotalers who choose sobriety. It all has to do with the tendency to reduce. “Six different glasses of wine with one meal is too much,” says Gargiulo. “If there are two people, they can choose one of each and compare; It's all part of the fun.”

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