A wine, made properly, that happens to have no alcohol in it
Salmon pink, properly sparkling, and dry.
Sauvignon Blanc · 0.0% vol · 3.8 bar · 750ml
The wine
A dry sparkling with all the aromas carefully captured
Salmon pink, from Loire Sauvignon Blanc with a hint of Pinot Noir behind it. And it is unmistakably Sauvignon Blanc — gooseberry and grapefruit zest hit first, with ripe strawberry and stone fruit sitting behind them.
Then the surprise: after all that fruit on the nose, the palate is dry. The acidity is balanced, the bubble light but consistent, and the finish satisfying and convincing.
The serve
Three things that change the glass
Not fridge-cold
Cold suppresses the aroma. A little under cellar temperature is where it opens up.
Use a tulip glass
A large tulip glass. Not a flute. Fill just a third. The empty space above the wine is where the carefully captured aroma lives.
More than you would
More than you would with an alcoholic wine. It rewards the extra turn of the wrist.
How it’s made
An Irish story and careful curation, made from the finest Loire Valley wine
It starts as wine. Not a soft drink with wine notes added. Sauvignon Blanc grown and vinified in Chémery, in Touraine, by a grower who has been making wine there a great deal longer than we have been selling it.
The blush is real. The colour comes from Pinot Noir — limited skin contact with red grapes, from the same grower’s own vineyards. That is rosé technique, done properly, not a colouring dropped in at the end.
Then the hard part
The wine travels to a specialist facility in Germany, and this is where most alcohol-free wine is won or lost.
Taking alcohol out of wine is straightforward. Taking it out without stripping the aroma is not — and that is the category’s real failure, the reason so much alcohol-free wine smells of nothing and tastes of sugar. The aromatics are volatile. Remove the alcohol carelessly and they leave with it.
Here they are captured before the alcohol is removed, and returned afterwards. The grapefruit and gooseberry you get on the nose are the grapes’, not an afterthought.
Carbonation and bottling happen on the same site. It finishes at 3.8 bar — the pressure range of a crémant. Properly sparkling, by the numbers rather than by the adjective.
The name
“And evening full of the linnet’s wings”
It comes from the second stanza of The Lake Isle of Innisfree, the poem by Ireland’s W.B. Yeats.
A linnet is a small finch. Once common enough across Ireland, and the sound of an evening in the countryside.
It’s about wanting to escape to somewhere beautiful. To be in harmony with nature and in good company. At peace with yourself, your company and your surroundings.
Where to find it
Buy it from The Sober Irish
Linnet’s Wing is made by The Sober Irish — an alcohol-free drinks specialist in Belfast, which exists to raise the bar for alcohol-free: to find, and now to make, the drinks worth drinking rather than the ones you settle for.
This is the first bottle with our own name on it. Single bottles, gift packaging and cases are all on the shop.
£19 a bottle — the same price as the shops that stock us.
For trade
Bars, restaurants, hotels, retailers and distributors
Linnet’s Wing is The Sober Irish’s own label, which means we set the price, control the supply and answer the phone ourselves. One wholesale price, whoever you are.
It is dry — 30 g/L of residual sugar carried by 5.8 g/L of acidity at pH 3.07. Your customers expect alcohol-free wine to be sweet. This one isn’t, and that inverts the objection before it’s made.
It is stable — cold-stable and protein-stable. No crystals in a chilled fridge, no haze on a shelf.
Prices on request. Tell us what you are and we’ll send the right list.
orders@thesoberirish.com · WhatsApp 07707 736072
Specification
| Descriptor | Alcohol-Free Sauvignon Blanc — Sparkling Blush |
|---|---|
| Legal name of the food | Flavoured Alcohol Free Beverage Made From De-alcoholised White Wine |
| Alcohol | 0.0% vol. |
| Volume | 750 ml ℯ |
| Case | 6 × 750 ml |
| EAN-13 | 5065028455008 |
| Origin | Made in Germany from French grapes |
| Allergens | Contains sulphites |