Blanc de Blancs Alkoholfrei

Ten calories and 2 grams of carbohydrate per 100ml is remarkable for something with this much going on. The route there is the long way round. Organic Chardonnay and Colombard get pressed and vinified, then bottle-fermented and left on the lees in the house cellars, and only afterwards does the alcohol come out by vacuum distillation. That sequence is what preserves the brioche character, which is the whole reason anyone ages on lees to begin with. It shows on the nose alongside apple, citrus and white blossoms, with caramel underneath, and carries onto a palate held together by fine acidity rather than sugar. The finished bottle is 85 percent dealcoholized wine and sits under 0.5 percent alcohol. It declares tree nuts and sulfites as allergens, so check the label if either matters to you. Manufaktur Jörg Geiger has been building alcohol-free compositions since 2003, and this is the range aimed squarely at great sparkling wine.