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+--- Thread: Non-alcoholic Red Wine (/thread-17326.html)
- Kathy Williams - 03-28-2001
Is REALLY good (quality wise that is) red wine actually is non-alcoholic? (I heard it was). Also can you recommend a really good non-alcholic red. Thanks
- Blue - 03-28-2001
Kathy,
I'm sorry to say this but the answer is no for a number of good reasons.
1. If it ain't got alcohol it ain't wine
okay that was fun..now for a better answer
2. Grape Juice is very sweet and unrefined. Fermentation, takes this sugar and turns it into alcohol. No alcohol = no fermentation = Sugar still there. In general (not counting port and boytritis affected wine) great wine is Dry (or let me say, not sweet). By dry I mean a minimum of residual sugar (residual = left over AFTER fermentation).
3. Wine is made in a process where excelence and quality at every step may deliver a great product. Every part of the process contributes to the making of great wine from the soil to the grape variety, to the innitial fermentation, to the bottling and finaly the bottle aging. Unfortunately an imperfection in any of these steps will ruin the worlds best wine. The fermentation of grapes is a very delicate process and a winemaker learns that it is key to start it at the right time, in the right conditions etc. Anyway the point is
If it doesn't have alcohol, it didn't ferment. If it didn't ferment, it aint wine its grape juice. No bottle of grape juice will ever send you on waves of pleasure and survive in your memory for your whole life like a great bottle of wine can. If you are Muslim or Orthodox Christian and believe that God will send you to hell for drinking alcohol...well look at it this way...God is reasonable. There a minute amounts of alcohol in so many things that every human has inbibed some at some point in his life. So either every human who has ever lived is going to hell, or God is really against innebriation. In this case have 1 glass of wine /wk. You won't get drunk, you will never be an alcoholic and god will still send you to heaven imho.
- mrdutton - 03-29-2001
Only one glass of wine a week?
Oh man, I am in serious trouble!!
I thought a half to a full bottle a day was about right......
[This message has been edited by mrdutton (edited 03-29-2001).]
- winoweenie - 03-30-2001
MrD, With each meal? WW
Oh, and by the way Kathy, welcome to the WINE BOARD. Don't think enny-body on this board really knows diddly 'bout non-alcohol products.
[This message has been edited by winoweenie (edited 03-30-2001).]
- Thomas - 03-30-2001
Blue did an amdirable job.
I understand there are products that go through fermentation and then the alcohol is taken out (by what fool chemical activity I know not). Why anyone would go to such lengths for such nonsensical products is beyond me--but then, I am so silly with wine all day long, you would do better listening to the sage advice of winoweenie, who really does know a lot about alcohol.
- chittychattykathy - 03-30-2001
Si, Reverse Osmosis. Where the alcohol and the water are removed (cold filtered) from the wine syrup. Then the water is added back to the syrup and you have wine again. The original wine is made in a traditional manner, and some are aged in oak! My J. Lohr guy explained this process to me in depth last year at a tasting when he was pouring Ariel for our customers. The main thing you miss when tasting these wines is the feeling of the alcohol burning off, which you miss more so in the reds. The sparkling brut and the Blanc were, in all honesty, where not soo bad! (Man, the grief I'm gonna get for this comment.) Ariel, by the way, has won several awards.
- winoweenie - 03-31-2001
In this day and age I'm sure it's feasible to add or subtract a component from almost anything, BUT other than for health reasons, what in the blue-blazes for? CCK if you want to blind taste any Ariel product with me against the same type of product made the traditional way and make a small wager, I'll get Bucko and a few other of my Seattle friends to participate. If you meant to say, "They were passable Beverages, but not GOOD wine, " which this thread was predicated about, so be it. BUT ARIEL be TASTY!!!! [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/frown.gif[/img]. That salesman must have been cute as a button. WW
[This message has been edited by winoweenie (edited 03-31-2001).]
- mrdutton - 03-31-2001
CCK - your predictions have a strange way of coming true !!!!
WW - I don't drink wine with breakfast. If work does not get in the way then a half bottle for lunch. After work, a relaxing dinner with the other half of the lunch bottle and then a bit more.
I guess that really works out to a bottle or two a day........ !! Kinda like apples, eh? (An apple a day keeps the doctor away.)
- chittychattykathy - 04-08-2001
"The best no-alcohol wine products I've tasted are some of Ariel's sparklings...it's like the effervescence replaces some of the mouthfeel missing because of the lack of alcohol..." Do you know who I am quoteing?