Flowers, berries, herbs – alcohol-free drinks can be made using a wide variety of natural ingredients. Their unusual flavours add a unique, often surprising, note as an accompaniment to refined dishes.
No alcohol? No problem!
Today, alcohol-free drinks are a popular alternative to classic wine pairings. Sommeliers are turning to unusual ingredients to craft creative concoctions
Anyone that has ordered a set menu at a high-end restaurant knows that it is usually accompanied with a wine pairing. The restaurant’s sommelier is responsible for picking out the perfect wines to match the carefully prepared dishes. However, classic wines are faced with increasingly stiffer competition from refined beverages that don’t contain a drop of alcohol but go perfectly with exquisite meals.
„0% alcohol content does not detract from the exquisite flavour.
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Perfecting drinks
Not only are clever, innovative restaurateurs serving more and more vegetarian and vegan dishes, their sommeliers regularly put together alcohol-free accompaniments that fulfil exactly the same purpose as a wine pairing – they elevate dishes, add unusual nuances, and ultimately perfect them. Thanks to this, diners no longer have to worry about being ‘party poopers’ and can save money on a taxi home after their meal.
Endless varieties
Whether its vintage fruit and vegetable juices, shrubs or fermented drinks, teas and extracts, wheys, syrups and herb essences or drinking vinegars – the possibilities are endless and there’s lots more variety than with wine. ‘PriSeccos’ from Jörg Geiger, monovarietal mountain apple juices from South Tyrol or fresh juices from van Nahmen are all now just as popular as the red and white grape kombucha invented by young winemaker Markus Weiss. Kombucha cultures transform the naturally occurring glucose in the grapes into organic acids. The result is a multi-faceted fermented flavour that is similar to wine.
Pressed berries from Lapland
Another juice pioneer is Werner Retter, Managing Director of Obsthof Retter in Pöllau, Styria. His refined, fresh juices are made from wild blueberries from the Carpathian Mountains, wild lingonberries from Lapland or wild grapes from the highest areas in Chile. The fruit is harvested by hand, gently pressed and carefully stored, just like a good wine. Wild fruits contain significantly less sugar and more acid, which means that the juices can be stored for longer and are not as sweet. The delicate droplets are drunk ‘au naturel’, that is to say undiluted, from the right glasses and at the right temperature.
Juice for the King
The Gross & Gross family of winemakers takes a very similar approach with their pure juices, which they distribute under the brand Flein. With these juices, drinkers can taste the “freshly pressed grape flavour, which usually only winemakers get to enjoy” and professionals should even be able to get a taste of the terroir where the grapes were grown. Van Nahmen presses wild plums from the Piedmont region of Italy into a delicious juice that the German President has served to guests, including King Charles III.
Fennel cocktail and king crab
For many sommeliers, pure juices – no matter how royal, special and refined they may be – are just too simple to serve as an alternative to wine. Instead, they are experimenting with cocktails made from refined grape juice, eucalyptus and olive oil (which goes great with venison) or cherry juice, Lapsang Souchong tea and red alcohol-free ‘grape-secco’ (as an accompaniment to a smoked chocolate and plum dessert). They have even crafted a flavourful herb lemonade from fennel, celery and basil, and with tibicos as a base, that goes wonderfully with king crab. In the Berlin restaurant Nobelhart & Schmutzig, quince juice is combined with hay, cold-extracted and then passed through a sieve.
Spruce and asparagus add flavour
For patrons that are looking for a more refined drink, sommeliers can mix fruit and vegetable juices, separate the solids from the liquid using hot filtration and then add whey, camelina oil, horseradish or honey. Kombucha drinks are now flavoured with herbs, berries, fruits but also spruce, asparagus or tomato. The most important thing is that these new drinks either harmonise or contrast with the dishes they are served with. Creamy dishes can be contrasted with notes of citrus or celery, while dark meats pair beautifully with coffee or cacao aromas. The most important thing is that the drink goes with the dish and awakens the diners’ curiosity.
Non-alcoholic drinks are no bargain
Unfortunately, anyone hoping to save a few pennies by skipping the wine is in for a bit of a surprise – these new non-alcoholic drinks are actually quite expensive. For example, Werner Retter sells bottles of his 2015 WILD loganberry juice for €133 apiece.
