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Why make alcohol-free wine?
Actually, they encountered pretty much every form of rejection at the beginning, Moritz Zyrewitz and Philipp Rößle tell us. Winemakers and wine merchants laughed at them, didn't take them seriously, called them crazy. And they kept asking the question: Why? Why the hell should you make a wine without alcohol? Why should you sell something like that?
Well, yes. For the reason that you make and sell every conceivable product in the world: Because customers want it.
Alcohol-free is a megatrend. This is well known in the beer and beverage industry. Low and no alcohol meets the zeitgeist. That's why the non-alcoholic beer segment has been growing for a long time and why there has been such a thing as non-alcoholic spirits for a few years now.
Alternative to alcohol
"But what was available in the field of non-alcoholic wines was shockingly unspectacular or even undrinkable," Philipp Rößle says, thinking back to the beginnings of Kolonne Null.
He and Moritz Zyrewitz have known each other for a good decade, during which they met every now and then over an aspirin in the morning after a night of drinking. At some point during such a morning encounter, they began to think about alternatives. Alternatives with which one could be seen well at the snazzy evening events, which one actually liked to hold in one's glass and in one's hand.
Alternatives to alcohol, but also to “partypooper” mineral water and “boringboring” apple spritzer. It should be of high quality. Somehow noble. Matured, perhaps. At first they had Ayurvedic spiced waters in mind - but then it was actually more like: wine!
"It's not about creating the identical tasting substitute. We are making something that is made from wine and is also a wine in a way. It is drunk on the same occasions as wine, namely as an accompaniment to food and for toasts at weddings, birthdays and so on.
Even with non-alcoholic wines, you can taste the characteristics of different grape varieties and growing regions, but it is still a new drink and taste experience," Rößle explains Kolonne Null's products.
The Berlin company's portfolio now consists of three wines and two sparkling "Sektvarianten", including a Riesling, a Burgundy, a Rosé and a red wine cuvée. The top seller, by a narrow margin, is the rosé "sparkling wine". "Everyone kind of loves it," says Rößle.
In 2019, Rößle and Zyrewitz produced 500 bottles of non-alcoholic wine with a winemaker and took it to Berlin's weekly markets. Testing market maturity, so to speak, very close to the customer. And the topic was well received.
Dealcoholisation as a challenge
For the production of their non-alcoholic wines, they buy finished wine from the vintner. From renowned winegrowers, from award-winning wineries. Their names are also found on the bottles of the alcohol-free Kolonne Null wines.
Rößle and Zyrewitz quickly realised that not every wine is suitable for dealcoholisation. After all - as is widely known - alcohol binds aromas, can mask off-flavours or emphasise good things.
With some grape varieties, the dealcoholised result tastes better, with others worse. "However, this varies so much that you can't say across the board which ones they are," says Rößle.
Yes, aromatic grape varieties such as Muskateller or Gewürztraminer have the advantage that their particularly distinctive notes can be clearly tasted even after dealcoholisation.
Melting Burgundy varieties from the south manage to retain their creaminess. Or the strength of character with acidity and the minerality of a Riesling is also good because it ensures recognition in a non-alcoholic version.
However, Rößle adds: One winemaker's Riesling may taste great without alcohol, another's not. And harvests also differ: the wine that worked perfectly well one year brings an off-flavour the next after de-alcoholisation.
"In the meantime, we ideally sit down with the winegrowers before the harvest and think about which of their wines we should make into a particularly appealing alcohol-free wine," he says. "Our laboratory team works with various institutes and research facilities to find out exactly what the problem is. But at the end of the day, that's just the way it is: Wine is a natural product and it turns out differently every year."
Vacuum distillation guarantees gentle dealcoholisation
What is not natural, however, is the process of dealcoholisation, which Kolonne Null is constantly developing for itself. Basically, the young company relies on vacuum distillation. "You can imagine it like a classic distillation in a schnapps distillery," explains Moritz Zyrewitz.
"The wine is heated to about 70 degrees and the alcohol evaporates. Vacuum distillation also works like this, except that the temperature here is 30 to 35 degrees. The process is gentler.
When distilling schnapps, I want as many aromas as possible to be in the alcohol that evaporates and as few as possible in the liquid that remains. We, on the other hand, want the opposite. We want the alcohol to go out but as much aroma as possible to remain in the wine."
To achieve this, the duo looked at dealcoholisation plants in Spain and California, undertook tests at different research institutions and rented space at various plants from different suppliers in Germany.
"Finally, we even rented our own plant in the summer of 2020 and, together with winegrowers and two universities, dealcoholised more than 20 wines for the text and thus made our first own products," says Moritz Zyrewitz.
Beverage technology instead of marketing gimmick
"It is our very clear commitment: we are not a marketing and sales freaks. We want to go into this depth of technology," says Philipp Rößle. "Our first employee was a beverage technologist. The product team has three people - for a total of 20 employees."
"We want to invest in technology to own it," adds his partner Zyrewitz. "However, a plant like the one we have in mind cost two to three million euros and is thus not directly affordable for a young company."
But it is the declared medium-term goal, which also sounds a bit like a dream: Ideally, Kolonne Null would like to establish a headquarters just outside Berlin - "because that's where you have to go if you also want to own a few vineyards."
It should be similar to a French champagne house, with its own production facility, laboratory and research, and gastronomy. "We dream of becoming a successful medium-sized company in the wine or beverage sector," say the start-up founders.
Do you want to read something about alcohol-free beer? Then you might also be interested in these two articles:
Multiple routes to producing alcohol-free beer, Alcohol-free made easy?!