Cabernet Sauvignon

Aaron Pott was named a Food and Wine winemaker of the year in 2012 for his Napa reds, and Missing Thorn is what happened when he and vintner Stephanie Honig decided to make the alcohol free version themselves. Cabernet is the hardest test in that project, since so much of its structure normally comes from alcohol. The approach is to make a real wine first. Fruit is fermented fully, chosen for flavours strong enough to survive dealcoholization, then run through a gentle distillation that pulls the alcohol while keeping the aromatics. Colour runs deep ruby to garnet. Cassis, blackberry, plum and dark cherry sit under cocoa, cedar and baking spice, with coffee bean and toasted oak on a full bodied palate, soft tannins and a long finish. Serve it at cellar temperature, around 65 degrees, not warm. Vegan, gluten free, under 0.5 percent alcohol.