F E AT U R E
Voting Proxy or a Not-wine Club
There’s another non-alcoholic category ripe for
reinvention: move over, alcohol-free wine.
Toronto-based Acid League doesn’t make wine. The
company, whose “living vinegars” are stocked at Whole
Foods in the U.S., makes Wine Proxies, by “trying to
think about what makes wine interesting,” said the
company’s Charlie Friedmann, who works with winemaker
Devin Campbell and a dream team of food scientists to
produce them.
Inspired by an ancient Roman drink of vinegar, honey,
herbs and water called posca, the proxies, which are
combinations of juices, teas, spices, bitters and non-alcoholic
ferments, come in wax-topped bottles with
names like Zest Contact and Cuvée Zero. That’s where the
similarity ends.
“They don’t look like wine, or even taste like it in some
cases. Maybe a modern wine, not necessarily natural wine,
but something closer to that, with texture, bright acid
and complexity,” Friedmann said. Originally geared to
fine dining and hospitality, the products were meant, “to
create something that has that level of potential for pairing
with food.” As a bonus, once opened they stay fresh for
up to 10 days, making them an appealing by-the-glass
restaurant option.
Though the brand still plans a wholesale line for
hospitality, when the pandemic shut Ontario restaurants
down, the Wine Proxies went direct-to-consumer as an
e-commerce subscription club, with three-bottle boxes
delivered monthly, for $60 to $70. The first box sold out
and “the response when we put them on social media is
10-times anything else we post,” said Friedmann. De-alcoholized
wine might need to make shelf space for some
new-generation competition.
comparison just sipping it straight.” Where no-alcohol spirits shine
is in creating no-proof drinks or modifying cocktails to be lower-proof
– like subbing a no-proof gin into a Low-groni.
Minding the store
The question is not just whether sober-curious consumers will
embrace no-proof spirits, but also whether retail and hospitality
will get on the wagon. Solbrü is among the brands targeting gro-cery
(it’s already in Manitoba Sobeys’ locations) and specialty food
stores. While it’s already in some of Manitoba’s private wine shops,
Kisil says the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation told her
it would only consider exclusive non-alcoholic spirits listings, and
only de-alcoholized (not no-alcohol) spirits – presumably, she says,
to avoid competing with non-liquor retailers.
In B.C., where many private liquor retailers co-exist with
government-owned stores, “Our main channel is private liquor
stores,” said Lumette’s MacIsaac. “Our goal was to get into grocery
stores, but during the pandemic they were too busy to list a new
product or even take a meeting. With restaurants mostly closed,
our availability to be used in cocktails and served in restaurants
took a pause.”
Similarly, Reynolds hoped to launch Sexy AF in Calgary bars
and restaurants last March. When that didn’t happen, the MBA-holder
got creative with her marketing: medi-spa customers can
now sip a Sexy AF alcohol-free cocktail while getting Botox, she’s
creating an alcohol-free menu for First Nations-owned Great Eagle
Casino and has beefed up her website with recipes and videos to
inspire customers.
Spiritliss was launched after the owners noticed the younger
generation drinking less
Photo courtesy of Marcus Rimmi.
Photo courtesy of Acid League
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