SOFT (?) CHAMPAGNE

[Jerry D Mead]

I tasted a really interesting product a few nights back...it's a California sparkler with only 6% alcohol...yet it is 100% wine made from thoroughly ripe fruit. It has had 50% alcohol removed via spinning cone technique. There's also a white, pink and red table wine in the line too, all of which are adequate...the blush and the white being better than the red.

The thing is, unlike no-alcohol wines which don't taste at all like wine...these taste pretty darned good. While they would not be my first choice, I would not be unhappy to drink them throughout a meal.

The champagne,though is especially good and has a real fine bead (it is Charmat, of course)and is on the sweet side of brut. It sells for $7.95, and will hold its own in the price category...in fact just won a medal at the West Coast Wine Competition against all comers.

I can see this being a big hit at weddings where folks wouldn't even know they were drinking a 6% product...hell, the groom might even stay sober enough to perform that night.

And great summer sippers when you want to quench thirst without getting intoxicated. I'll probably review them for my column when I figure out just the right angle to describe them.

Right now they're only being sold in one New York grocery chain and via the internet.

Check out: www.softwines.com