Austria’s 100-point, No. 1 Top 100 winemaker makes the best non-alcoholic wine on earth. Plus Lewis Hamilton’s zero-proof agave spirits, and seven more bottles nobody will guess are 0.0%.

A Personal Note

Dear Artisans,

Thanksgiving is the one meal of the year where everybody comes to the table. Not everybody at that table drinks: the designated driver, the friend who is expecting, the guest taking a break, the relative whose medication says no, the teenagers who still want to be part of the toast.

Usually they get sparkling water in a wine glass, and everyone can tell. This year, pour them the bottles nobody will guess. We have tasted hundreds of non-alcoholic bottles. These nine are the ones we put our name on, starting with the two we drink ourselves: Christine, James & Joe’s house wine.

Why Most Non-Alcoholic Wine Fails

We have tasted hundreds and hundreds of non-alcoholic bottles over the years, and almost none of them were worth anybody’s time. Strip the alcohol out of a finished wine with heat and you strip out most of the aroma and all of the body: it tastes like water with a memory. So the producer dumps sugar back in, and now it tastes like flat, expensive apple juice.

Then a friend poured us a Layla.

Layla Is Wine First

Markus Huber does it the hard way. Layla starts as an actual wine from his own organically farmed vineyards, fully fermented, then matured for a year before the alcohol comes out, cold, through reverse osmosis rather than being cooked off. You are not drinking a shortcut. You are drinking a year-old wine with one ingredient removed.

We have poured them for a lot of customers at the shop without saying what they were. Not one person guessed. The reveal has produced some of the best facial expressions of my retail career. Imagine that moment at your Thanksgiving table.

Who Is Making This

Markus Huber took over his family’s estate in the Traisental in 2000, the tenth generation, at 21, with four hectares. He has grown it past fifty, and every vineyard is now farmed under organic certification. His philosophy: great wine is made in the vineyard, not corrected in the winery.

Markus Huber In The Traisental

Those wines are allocated and not what this email is about. This email is about what he does with the same care and no alcohol at the end of it.

Michelin-Star Caliber

Here is where I keep running into these bottles: on the pairing menus of Michelin-starred dining rooms, printed on the same page as wines carrying four and five figures, poured course by course as a deliberate part of the meal. A beverage director sitting on a cellar of grand cru does not hand a zero-proof bottle to a paying guest unless it can hold the table.

A Zero-Proof Thanksgiving, Course By Course

Arrival: an Almave Blanco margarita, or a smoky Almave Humo cocktail for the mezcal crowd, and Contrattino for anyone who wants an aperitivo in one pour.

The toast: Layla Sparkling, or the Strauch Blanc Pur if you want the most serious bottle on the table.

The turkey: Layla Rosé, or Layla Sparkling, which Huber himself pairs with turkey; the Allendorf Riesling if you would rather it still.

The kids’ table and Grandma: Duché de Longueville, our number one non-alcoholic seller for 18 years. You can forget all about Martinelli’s.

Pie: Dr. Loosen’s DR. LO, off-dry and frothy.

And all of it with fewer calories than the usual: Layla has fewer than regular sparkling wine, and Almave Blanco is about 20 calories a two-ounce pour.

James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Why This Matters

The Nine At A Glance

Austria · Traisental · 0.0%

Layla. Sparkling.

100% Gelber Muskateller. Falstaff 91 in its 2025 dealcoholized trophy tasting.

Gelber MuskatellerFalstaff 910.0% ABV

Layla Non-Alcoholic Sparkling

Weingut Markus Huber · Traisental, Austria · 750 mL

Gelber Muskateller is the grape you want for this job and almost nobody uses it, because it is a nuisance to grow and impossible to hide behind. It is intensely aromatic, which means that when you take the alcohol away there is still an enormous amount left in the glass.

Apple blossom and mandarin rind on the nose, a textured palate rather than a thin one, and a fine, persistent bead. Huber pairs it with chicken, turkey and asparagus, so it is made for the Thanksgiving table.

The One That Converts The Sceptics

Layla Rosé. For The Turkey.

Half Pinot Noir, half Zweigelt, Austria’s signature red grape.

Pinot Noir & ZweigeltSparkling0.0% ABV

Layla Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Rosé

Weingut Markus Huber · Traisental, Austria · 750 mL

The Rosé is a completely different wine from the white, not the same juice with a blush. Huber builds it from Pinot Noir and Zweigelt, which brings a sour-cherry lift that no aromatic white grape can give you.

Pale copper-pink in the glass. Wild strawberry and redcurrant, a fine chalky texture and a finish that stays savoury instead of going soft like every rosé spritzer you have been handed at a wedding. This is the bottle Christine reaches for, and it is the one I would put next to the turkey and the cranberry sauce.

New · Lewis Hamilton’s Almave

Almave Humo. Zero-Proof Mezcal.

Espadín agave, pit-roasted on volcanic stones beneath Popocatépetl.

Espadín AgavePit-RoastedNon-Alcoholic

Almave Humo Non-Alcoholic Agave Spirit

Almave · Puebla, Mexico · 700 mL

Almave is the non-alcoholic agave project of seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and Iván Saldaña, master distiller at Casa Lumbre. Humo, released in August 2025, is their answer to mezcal.

It uses native espadín agave from the volcanic land at the base of the Popocatépetl volcano in Puebla, pit-roasted with fire and volcanic stones the traditional mezcal way. Smoky and savoury, for the uncle who always orders mezcal: pour it in a paloma or over a big rock with an orange twist.

New · Lewis Hamilton’s Almave

Almave Blanco. The Margarita.

Blue agave from Jalisco, made for the margarita pitcher.

Blue AgaveJaliscoAbout 20 Calories A Pour

Almave Blanco Non-Alcoholic Agave Spirit

Almave · Jalisco, Mexico · 700 mL

The first Almave, launched in October 2023: blue agave harvested and distilled in Jalisco, balancing sweetness, herbal notes and acidity into a complex expression of pure agave flavor.

Made for mixing: a margarita or your favorite tequila cocktail, at about 20 calories a two-ounce pour. Set out a pitcher when guests arrive and nobody has to ask which one is theirs.

Normandy · Our Number One Seller For 18 Years

Duché de Longueville. The Kids’ Table.

Sparkling cider from 15 apple varieties near Dieppe.

15 Apple VarietiesSince 1950Non-Alcoholic

Duché de Longueville French Sparkling Cider

Normandy, France · 750 mL

This has been the best-selling non-alcoholic bottle in our shop for eighteen straight years. Since 1950 the house has planted cider orchards near Dieppe: 600 hectares, fifteen apple varieties, each harvested separately and held at controlled temperature until blending. Completely natural.

Red apple, green apple, a hint of sweet dried apple and a lively bead. Many of America’s finest restaurants carry it as the only non-alcoholic bottle on the wine list. You can forget all about Martinelli’s.

Piedmont · One Pour, Before The Meal

Contrattino. The Aperitivo.

Over 30 botanicals, organic, in a 200 mL single-serve bottle.

200 mL30+ BotanicalsOrganic

Contrattino Non-Alcoholic Aperitivo

Contratto · Canelli, Piedmont · 200 mL

From Contratto, founded in 1867 in Canelli and revived under Giorgio Rivetti of La Spinetta. Contratto made a “tonic aperitivo digestive” in the 1930s, arguably the original ready-to-drink.

Over thirty botanicals, including Madagascar vanilla, orange, tangerine, elderflower, rose, cinchona and rhubarb: bitter, citrusy, floral and properly effervescent. One serving, five dollars, and the prettiest bottle on the appetizer table.

Rheingau · Our Number One Still White

Allendorf. Still Riesling.

The best-named bottle in the store.

Riesling0.5% ABVStill

Allendorf “Save Water Drink Riesling”

Allendorf · Rheingau, Germany · 750 mL

The still white that holds up when there are no bubbles to distract you. Riesling’s acidity does the structural work that alcohol normally does, so the wine stays mouthwatering rather than cloying.

Fresh citrus aromatics and a harmonious balance of sweetness and acidity. Excellent straight with dinner, and good in a spritz if you want to stretch a bottle across the afternoon.

Rheinhessen · Organic & Vegan

Strauch Blanc Pur. Riesling Sekt.

Traditional bottle fermentation, then the alcohol comes out.

RieslingTraditional MethodUnder 0.5% ABV

Strauch “Blanc Pur” Riesling Sekt

Strauch Sektmanufaktur · Germany · 750 mL

Tim and Isabel Strauch merged their parents’ estates in 2011 in Osthofen: around 25 hectares farmed organically, early hand harvest, whole-grape pressing, traditional bottle fermentation and long maturation on the lees.

The base is a dealcoholized dry wine, not sweet carbonated juice, so it looks, feels and tastes like a high-quality traditional-method sparkling wine. The most serious bottle on this list.

Mosel · 200 Years Of Riesling

DR. LO. For The Pie.

Dr. Loosen’s classic-method, alcohol-free Riesling sparkling.

RieslingClassic MethodAlcohol-Free

Dr. Loosen “DR. LO” Riesling Sparkling

Dr. Loosen · Mosel, Germany · 750 mL

The Loosen family has grown Riesling in the Mosel for over 200 years. Frothy bubbles carry juicy pineapple and mango with a lick of lime zest, then a palate of tropical fruit and foamy lightness.

The finish is off-dry and balanced by Riesling’s freshness, which makes it the bottle to open with pumpkin pie.

The Bottom Line

Not drinking should never mean not toasting.

A winemaker with two 100-point wines and Austria’s Wine of the Year refused to treat non-alcoholic wine as a side project. That is why Layla is good, and why nobody at your table will guess.

Layla at $24.97, Almave from $34.96, nine bottles from $4.99. Put a pair in the fridge door for the 26th, and make sure everyone has something worth raising.

Cheers,

— James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Artisan Wine & Spirits · 2495 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View, CA 94043
Questions? Chat Live · sales@artisan.wine · 650-917-8080