Teetotallers toast to SA’s first de-alcoholised wine
Faking booze a thing of the past
A London Telegraph newspaper report once listed 10 things that people who don’t drink alcohol have to put up with, and chief among them was that teetotallers get tired of explaining to drinkers their reasons for abstaining from boozing.
And often when nondrinkers outline reasons for their preferred alcohol-free lifestyle, they are greeted with shrieks of disbelief from their booze-swigging inquisitors.
Tired of explaining themselves, teetotallers ended up finding ways to pretend they were drinking – and secretly ordered water and put a slice of lemon in it to make it look like a gin & tonic cocktail, according to the Telegraph report.
But non-boozers need not camouflage their drinks just to blend in with the revelling brigade any longer, thanks to the advent of de-alcoholised wines and ready-to-drink coolers.
With the rising popularity of wine today, there has been a corresponding demand for alcohol-free drinks, including health in the case of pregnant women.
Thankfully, South Africa now boasts what has been punted as the country’s first de-alcoholised wine, Lautus Savvy White, which has been crafted by the winemaking team at the Cape’s Holder Vineyard.
This wine is essentially made according to the traditional winemaking method right until just before the bottling phase, when alcohol is removed through a technique using a special spinning cone without eliminating the natural ingredients of the grape.
This results in a flavourful wine with low calories (52kJ per 100ml), containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume.
Holder Vineyard holds that 0.5 alcohol volume would be equal to the same traces one would find in a two-day-old orange juice left in a fridge.
Lautus (R59.95) has the gentle grip and slight sourness of booze without the intoxicating punch that typically gives the glaze to the eye.
“It has been a long wait for a South African de-alcoholised wine that is great to drink,” says Cape Wine Master Allan Mullins, wine selector at Woolworths, who adds that feedback has been “amazing, particularly from drivers and pregnant women”.
The two processes for making non-alcoholic wine are vacuum distillation and reverse osmosis.
Both involve the fermenting of grapes to make wine, ending with the removal of alcohol through either process.
The winemaker’s recommendation is that Lautus should ideally be enjoyed on its own or paired with salads and lighter dishes featuring white meat.
It seems teetotallers are geared to be spoilt for choice of non-alcoholic drinks in the future.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s granddaughter Ziyanda also launched her own de-alcoholised wine label Sena (R90) towards the end of last year.
Meanwhile, Soweto’s Eyethu Lifestyle Centre hosted a rare tasting of the wines from the Franschhoek estate of La Motte at the weekend, all accompanied by a three-course gourmet dinner prepared by restaurateur Siza Henna.
A commentary on the wines by the highly talented One
& Only Hotel sommelier Luvo Ntezo added to the lively ambience on an evening attending by some of Joburg’s wine buffs.