Nosecco, anyone?

So tasty are some of the new alcohol-free tipples that they tempt even a self-confessed lush, admits Jonathan Ray

I’M acutely aware that I drink far, far too much. I try and convince myself it’s simply because of my job that I’m so ready to prise open a bottle of this or that at almost any time of day or night. The hideous truth is that I’m a lush, plain and simple, and get away without being vilified too much by Mrs Ray thanks to the fact that I’m paid to write about booze in its many delightful forms. It’s my job. Oh, and thanks to the fact that she’s a lush, too. Of course, I’m not helped by the fact that almost all our friends are lushes as well. Where they lead – and they know perfectly well who I’m talking about – I follow meekly. I’m just so easily led, dammit, and they’re just so persuasive.

Only last evening, I wandered across the garden to my neighbour and old mate Jamie, with whom I used to work at Berry Bros & Rudd all those moons ago. I was only after an idle pre-supper chinwag and catch up and I’d promised myself that being a Monday I’d do my best to give the vino the swerve for the evening.

I explained to Jamie that I was on the wagon for the day and he replied that he was, too, and what a jolly good idea it was that we were being so sensible and how proud of us our wives would be. He paused for a second or so and looked me deep in the eye.

“Rosé, well chilled?” he asked. “You betcha!” I shot back. Forty minutes later we’d polished off the bottle. And that’s where the trouble started because, of course, once I got home I had to open some red to go with

supper and this was followed by a modest glass or so of teasingly sweet Tokaji to go with my post-prandial repose on the sofa.

Marina joined me, natch, whilst also somehow managing to give me stick for being so hopelessly flaky. My eldest son, Ferdy (17), simply rolled his eyes. His particular branch of teenage rebellion involves him pointedly avoiding strong liquor altogether. He is still yet to taste a drop of booze and I’m beginning to despair.

It appears, however, that he’s not alone, for recent research by the Office for National Statistics (OFNS) has revealed that drinking rates among British adults have plunged to their lowest in two decades, with more than a quarter of 16- to 24-yearolds not drinking at all.

Our street in Brighton must be something of a blip on the OFNS’S graph because consumption here continues to rocket. Our 48 houses share a four-acre communal park and come the summer all back doors are left open and you don’t have to try very hard to find someone to share a bottle with, lying on a rug in some sun-dappled glade. I haven’t had an alcohol-free day since 31 January.

Elsewhere, however, it’s clearly true that folk are drinking less. Only last weekend I was at a summer barbecue of around 20 guests where well over half weren’t drinking. Teetotalism (or near teetotalism) has become quite the trend.

Take Ocado as just one example. At its Christmas-in-july press event I discovered

that it has more than 70 alcohol-free or lowalcohol items on its list to feed said trend, including a Nosecco (alcohol-free Prosecco, as if you hadn’t guessed); Bon Voyage alcohol-free Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling; Chastity Nosin Gin (the world’s first alcohol-free gin); Seedlip alcohol-free spirits; Big Drop alcohol-free lager, stout, spice ale and so on.

Gone are the days when the only nonalcoholic drinks available were water, apple or orange juice. There’s a remarkable variety and – d’you know what? – some of them aren’t half bad.

The newly released Fierce Botanics Apothecary Tonic, for example, is almost overwhelmingly delicious. Of course, it’s better with added gin or vodka but even without it’s fabulously refreshing and tasty, made as it is with elderberry, spruce, fir, Cinchona bark, rose petals and the peel of fresh lemon and grapefruit by Amanda Saurin, a real-life apothecary.

And there are the Kombucha-fermented tea drinks, such as Royal Flush (made with first flush Darjeeling), Dry Dragon (green tea) and Smoke House (Chinese black tea). Less than 2% sugar and with fewer than 50 calories a bottle, they’re healthy and toothsome for sure with enough weight and body that you barely miss the alcohol.

Or how about the sublime tomato juices from the Tomato Stall on the Isle of Wight? There’s the red one and the golden one and I’ve never had such delicious juice in my life. Without added sugar, salt or citric acid they are as pure as they come and absurdly moreish. If tomato juice is your thing then please, please try them. You will thank me, I promise, whilst also being bang on trend.

My son rolled his eyes. His brand of teenage rebellion involves pointedly avoiding liquor