FOOD & WINE: This Nonalcoholic Wine Tastes Just as Luxurious as Expensive Champagne

Credit article, Oset Babür-WinterPhoto, Greg Dupree - Food styling, Chelsea Zimmer - Prop styling, Christina Daley

This Nonalcoholic Wine Tastes Just as Luxurious as Expensive Champagne

As nonalcoholic cocktails have become menu mainstays, zero-proof sparkling wines have struggled. Enter French Bloom, a sparkling alcohol-free wine made with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from southern France’s Languedoc region. Created by Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger and Constance Jablonski in 2019, French Bloom’s effervescent dealcoholized wines Le Blanc and Le Rosé have quickly made it onto menus at iconic restaurants around the world — and into the glasses of those who want to celebrate and splurge booze-free.

“I always found it paradoxical that my industry asked me to travel and look pretty and fresh in the studio,” says Jablonski, a seasoned model who has worked with brands like Chanel, Dior, and Hermès. “And at the same time, the heart of modeling is going out to events and making connections with photographers and stylists. I couldn’t combine both, so I wouldn’t party much, and that made me feel rejected and uncool.”

She shared her frustration with Frerejean-Taittinger, who was pregnant with twins at the time and— especially as someone married to a noted Champagne maker — couldn’t stomach drinking the subpar, sugary nonalcoholic sparkling wines that already existed. Not long after, French Bloom was born. In 2021, they sold 10,000 bottles during an initial launch run at La Grande Épicerie, the gourmet food hall inside Le Bon Marché department store in Paris; this year, they’re projecting to sell 400,000 bottles.

French Bloom evokes the Old World taste and feel of Champagne in three offerings: Le Blanc, Le Rosé, and La Cuvée. Le Blanc is crisp and full of bright acidity, with green apple and brioche flavors, while Le Rosé is floral, with notes of strawberries and white peaches. To make them, still wine is dealcoholized, then organic ingredients like lemon juice are added to “rebuild the profile” of a classic Champagne. The effervescence is added at the very end. 

La Cuvée, released earlier this year, is the world’s first-ever vintage nonalcoholic sparkling wine to use organic grapes from Languedoc. “We are approaching exactly like the French winemakers we admire greatly and will only make it in the best years,” says Frerejean-Taittinger. With a $119 price point, it’s an ambitious bet on the market’s appetite for booze-free bubbly that’s priced like top Champagnes. (The nonvintage offerings range between $39 to $44.) “We estimate that 80% of French Bloom drinkers still consume alcohol — we just want to help bring back the days of drinking wine at the lunch table,” Jablonski explains. “I think we represent the future of the wine world.”

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