Cienna Zero

Cienna is a grape almost nobody outside Australia has heard of, and that is because Brown Brothers effectively owns it. CSIRO developed the variety in 1972, crossing Sumoll with Cabernet Sauvignon to make a wine suited to the Australian climate, and it took its name from the colour sienna. What it produces is bright ruby, lightly fizzy and packed with sweet summer berry flavour, and it is one of the rare reds meant to be drunk cold. Cienna Zero keeps all of that at less than 0.5 percent alcohol. The chill and the sweetness make it a genuinely useful food wine. Serve it with a spicy Chinese hot pot and the fruit takes the sting out of the chilli, or pour it beside crushed meringue with mixed berries and raspberry coulis.