Finding the right cheeses for alcohol-free wine

Talking to students at the Laura Willoughby-operated Club Soda premises in central London, Kelly also delved into the history of alcohol and how society lost some of drinks that are returning in the form of low & no alcohol beverages.

Kelly explained: “Wine and cheese go super well together because cheese is fatty and full of protein whereas wine is acidic and full of tannins, and they amplify each other.

“Every time you take a sip of wine, it strips the fat on your tongue off, which means next time you try cheese, it’s all new again.

“The general rule of thumb – and all rules can be broken – is that bubbles go very well with soft cheeses like brie; the bubbles help break down the cheese’s acids and fats.

“You have acidity and sweetness so they pair nicely, it also works with more buttery cheeses like Stilton.

“White wines, if they’re rich and dry, go nicely again with brie and the softer cheeses.

“If it’s crisp and more acidic then it will go better with goats’ cheese.

“Red wines, because they’ve got much more tannins and much more fruit, for example we know fruit cake and cheeses go really well together because it’s that fruit balancing off the cheese, so red wines do well with hard cheeses, especially firm, aged cheeses, and the heavier the red wine, the heavier the cheese you can take with it.”

His recommendations included Colombard-Sauvignon with goats’ cheese, Zeno sparkling wine with mozzarella and Syrah red wine with Stilton.

Safe to drink​

Kelly, who has been part of the low & no movement since 2017 and is a regular IWSC (International Wine & Spirit Competition) judge, senior WAFA (World Alcohol-Free Awards​) judge and specialist lead judge in low & no wine for WSET (Wine & Spirits Education Trust), explained the history of alcohol.

Alcohol is in drinks in the first place for a number of reasons, Kelly said. Sterilisation being the key point.

He continued: “Drinks were made with alcohol so liquids were safe to drink. In lots of areas, the water would kill you so you have to do things to it [to make it safe] and fermentation was the best way.

“Also, alcohol would help to preserve it. With if you’ve got this nice beer or wine, it’s not going to keep well but if you let ferment a bit longer.

“However, what people forget is you wouldn’t be able to be out in the sun in Provence, harvesting the field and have your lunch of a 14% ABV red wine, a baguette and some cheese – you’d be sozzled and you wouldn’t be able to do the rest of your day shift.”

Kelly said wine and beer ABV has increased a lot over the past 100 years and beer has done so particularly over the past 20 years.

It was not unusual to have wines that were 7, 8, 9% and beers would be drunk for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and that beer would be around 2% ABV.

He said: “There were ‘small’ beers and then you had your big beers or party beers that were around 10% to 12%. It was the same with heavier or fortified wines. These were not for everyday drinking.

Carry the flavour​

“We’ve lost that part of the culture but with low & no, we’re finding some again that are not as new as we think.”

Kelly explained another reason alcohol was used was to help carry flavours and the challenge with alcohol-free wines is if you go down to 0% ABV, how do you carry that flavour? How do you make it live without packing it full of sugar or vinegar or artificial additives?

“We’re getting there with technology, but we’ve got down to 0.5% ABV with wines and beers because it helps carry the flavour and coats it up on the mouth,” he argued.

“Another myth about alcohol-free wine is that it is full of sugar but there’s at least 50% less sugar in alcohol-free than full alcohol because alcohol breaks into sugar.

“Legal recognition for low sugar is 2.5g and under per 100 and every wine students tasted had 75% less sugar than Coca-Cola and had less sugar than a freshly squeezed juice, orange juice.”

He added, legally, most of these drinks could have low sugar labelling but because they are classed as a foodstuff, the sugar content must be displayed whereas with full alcohol full, this is not required.

An interesting note from Kelly was on sulphites, which are added to food and drinks chiefly as a preservative, that even after stopping drinking alcoholic wine and switching to alcohol-free wine, some people still suffer hangovers and he blamed the sulphites for this.

Finally, Kelly said: “Alcohol-free wines have a best-before date not a use-by date. Three years ago, it was for one year. Now, it’s between two and three years. If we can get it to four years without whacking it full of horrible artificiality, that would be a great thing. I would not be surprised if four to five years would become the norm soon.”

• Mindful drinking movement Club Soda​​, which Laura Willoughby founded about 10 years ago, operated four sessions in the Drinks Academy​ for students wanting to gain an in-depth knowledge of the low & no category. They met drinks makers, creative experts, insight specialists and marketeers with the course’s goal of equipping each student with the confidence to buy and execute a great alcohol-free range.