It’s a nice feeling to still know your name the next morning after a glass or two of sparkling wine. If you can’t or don’t want to measure up, you should try non-alcoholic sparkling wine. It can be drunk without the risk of alcohol becoming too high. Öko-Test tried one or the other jar.
If there’s something to celebrate, a bottle of sparkling wine will be opened. There’s another festival coming up these days. But some have a guilty conscience. After all, “alcohol destroys more than you think,” as the Federal Ministry of Health warned a few years ago. If you want to do without the neurotoxin as a result, or just because, you can try to keep yourself in a good mood with non-alcoholic sparkling wine, at least in terms of taste.
Öko-Test bought 20 alcohol-free sparkling wines – 16 based on dealcoholized wine and four products based on grape juice or grape seed extract with added carbonic acid. At prices between 1.99 and 12.99 euros.
And the testers notice right away that many products look like sparkling wine or sparkling wine at first glance because they are presented with the typical features such as stoppers, clasps and foil. A few bottles are sealed with screw caps or crown caps. What they all have in common is that they are made from grapes, have an “alcohol-free” or “dealcoholized” character and are carbonated externally. Apart from that, Öko-Test can recommend a good half of the non-alcoholic sparkling wines.
For pregnant women and non-alcoholics, the non-alcoholic sparkling wines are a sparkling alternative to toasting. However, long-term use is not recommended. Because the alcohol cannot be completely removed from it. Unless it is a grape juice with added carbonic acid. In particular, those who like it sweeter will enjoy the sparkling grape juices. However, the “Zéra Profil Chardonnay Effervescent alcohol-free” fails in this segment with “insufficient”. Because the product rattled through the sensory test with “artificial, candy and perfume-like” notes and “inharmonious aroma impression”. In addition, the testers don’t find it exciting at all that the bottle is presented like a fine sparkling wine. Although “only” grape juice is in it. Oh well.
Those who prefer dry drinks will probably prefer products made from dealcoholized wine. The most expensive bottle in the test only gets a “poor” here. Apart from sensory weaknesses, the laboratory commissioned with the investigation found traces of two particularly questionable pesticides in the “Cuvée blanc No.1 sparkling, alcohol-free”.
Öko-Test liked the grape juice-based “Trenz Trenzero” (5.79 euros) better. Just like the sparkling drinks made from alcohol-free wine, which were also rated “very good”, such as “Burg Schöneck alcohol-free” from Lidl or “Schloss Königstein Weiss alcohol-free” from Edeka (both 1.99 euros).
