Sparkling Brut

Codorníu has been making wine since 1551, which makes it the oldest wine and cava producer in Spain, and Josep Raventós created the first cava under its roof in 1872. That lineage matters here, because dealcoholized sparkling wine usually arrives from producers with no such record behind it. It pours a brilliant platinum yellow with a fine, consistent bead that holds in the glass. The first nose is white currant and gooseberry, with fruity balsamic nuances filling in underneath. On the palate it reads fruity and velvety rather than austere, vinified toward a sweeter profile than the Brut name might lead you to expect. The alcohol comes out after fermentation, leaving under 0.5 percent, and the bottle is vegan. Serve it properly cold and put it on the table rather than treating it as a soft drink, since it stands up next to food better than most zero proof sparklers manage.