Monday, March 02, 2009

Turning Wine into Water: VI-NO-ZE-RO

I have come to peace with dealcoholized beer, but you need to treat it as an entirely new class of beverage - if you go into hoping for a drink that tastes just like your regular brew you will always be disappointed. But if you go into it looking for an alternative drink you can better appreciate it. That being said, most of them are pretty awful "alternative beverages", but I have found some that are drinkable - Bitburger 'Drive' is my personal fave.

So I approached this wine with a more open mind than my wife, who called me in a panic - "Joe, I need wine help". She NEVER calls me to ask about wine, so I knew it was serious. Calling her back I got a panicky "Do you have any other wine...that wine in the fridge...it's, it's...AWFUL". She was referring to tonight's wine...

The non-vintage VI-NO-ZE-RO (Müller Thurgau) was a very pale gold in the glass, unusual (but rather interesting) on the nose - yeast, wet stones, but difficult to discern much else. Cool and wet on the palate, but very bland - not "bad" in my mind, just very, very bland. Overall, I commend the production of a dealcoholized (<0.5%) wine that is not too sweet and has no rough edges, and maybe with time I can come to terms with this beverage in the same way I have come to terms with dealcoholized beer.
screw top. 0.5% alcohol
Score: 8.5/20
Price: C$7.60 (SAQ)

But I speak only for myself - my wife's take: "I would not drink that, even if I were pregnant"

5 comments:

Edward said...

Joe,

Things must be getting deperate!

I often walk past the no alcohol grape juice in the supermarkets and wonder what they taste like. . .

PS I was thinking about you the other day, I had to buy 5kg of ice for my daughter's party, I can't imagine you would be having that sort of problem at the moment :)

Joe said...

You know I love experiments - if done correctly I would have purchased an "alcoholized" Muller Thurgau. Keep walking, your wife will thank you for it. Spring is slowly showing its head here - sunny and 7 Celsius, I even took out my new space age bicycle for a quick ride. (but it will be back below zero this week, argh)

Barry said...

I'm glad the 'German' beer got good marks..
don't blame me for Mrs Müller..I'm only responsible for the non-alcoholic Spätburgunders..of which the production is poor in my house at the moment.
Who were you serving it to Joe...? Does the cat drink?

Shea said...

7 celsius. Dear god. I think I've got used to the 16 celsius January/February California weather! And yes, dear god stay away from non-alcoholic alcohol. My philosophy is if you don't want booze, then stick to water. That said, I was quite pleased with the 2.5% ABV beers in Vietnam when I went.

Joe said...

Of course the Germans make good beer, Barry, even when it is not real beer. I wasn't actually serving it - it was chilling in the fridge while I was at work and my wife decided to cook with it, pour herself a glass - I nearly ruined dinner!

Shea, you know your expectations are low when you see 7 celsius and you act like it is summer! I think you are right Shea, the best de-alcoholized beer is a coke/pellegrino...