French Bloom Launches Single-Vintage Non-Alcohol Sparkling Wine

Written by Kate Dingwall

As a wine lover, I’m excited to try new cuvees and sip special things but there are days my body needs a break. However, there are few non-alcoholic products that match my palate and I’m often left drinking tea, or worse, water.

Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger felt a similar gap. She spent the bulk of her career captaining the Michelin Guide’s international efforts and traveling to tastemaking-restaurants and destinations, so when she was pregnant with twins, she felt her glass was often empty—few zero-proof options matched the execution of what she was eating.

“As somebody who appreciates wine, loves Champagne — convenient because my husband makes it — and appreciates the art of pairing, I didn’t feel like I was having the same experience,” says Maggie.

As a wine lover, I’m excited to try new cuvees and sip special things but there are days my body needs a break. However, there are few non-alcoholic products that match my palate and I’m often left drinking tea, or worse, water.

Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger felt a similar gap. She spent the bulk of her career captaining the Michelin Guide’s international efforts and traveling to tastemaking-restaurants and destinations, so when she was pregnant with twins, she felt her glass was often empty—few zero-proof options matched the execution of what she was eating.

“As somebody who appreciates wine, loves Champagne — convenient because my husband makes it — and appreciates the art of pairing, I didn’t feel like I was having the same experience,” says Maggie.

So in 2019, she partnered with her husband, winemaker Rodolphe Frerejean-Taittinger, and Constance Jablonski to launch an elegant, Champagne-style beverage: French Bloom. The sparkling wine brand’s Le Blanc and French Bloom Le Rosé—all zero-proof—won over fans by offering the effervescence and precision of a French sparkling wine while remaining firmly rooted in the non-alcoholic space (all bottles are 0.0% ABV).

The French house has now released its newest offering: a vintage-dated non-alcoholic sparkling wine.

La Cuvée Vintage Blanc de Blanc 2022 (retailing for $119 or €109) is artfully crafted to pair with gastronomy, pulling cues from well-aged Champagnes and wines from Jura—wines with complexity and precise flavor architecture.

If you’re going to make a great non-alcoholic wine, Frerejean-Taittinger is an excellent person to ask. He’s the CEO and founder of independent Champagne House Frerejean Frères, where he ages Champagnes for up to twelve years, and Coutanseaux Aîné in Cognac.

It’s near-impossible to age a non-alcoholic sparkling wine (“our trials weren’t even drinkable,” laughs Rodolphe) so French Bloom was tasked with emulating age through sourcing and process. For La Cuvée, they landed on a few plots of Chardonnay grown in the Languedoc—“Languedoc is the kingdom of natural wine.”

Rodolphe notes that they need to push their still wines to the extremes so flavors and nuances survive the dealcoholization process—alongside removing alcohol, the process tends to mute the aromas and flavors of the wine.

“We needed to make a wine that had a high level of alcohol, even two weeks before harvest,” he explains. “We also had to play with the acidity—we don’t have the cool climate of Champagne so we have to recreate the acidity. To do that, we harvest earlier and re-acidify the wine during the vinification using classic methods, like acid tartrate. Through everything, we take a very natural route—everything is 100% certified organic and free of sulphites and preservatives.”

To remove the alcohol, they use low-temperature vacuum distillation, three passes in total, to slowly and gently remove the alcohol from the wine to reach 0.0% alcohol. The complete absence of alcohol is important—it allows pregnant women or sober-pursuing drinkers to sip without worry.

But many of the brand’s core customers aren’t abstainers—they’re well-heeled drinkers with discerning palates who are taking a break, be it an evening or a lunch. “80% of our customers are flexi-drinkers: they drink wine, they drink Champagne, and sometimes they don’t drink at all—they just moderate,” Rodolphe points out. “When you drink fine wine, alcohol is secondary anyway—it’s about flavor.”

The resulting blanc de blanc blooms with maturity and depth, offering robust aromas and layers of flavor seldom found in zero-proof wines. It’s honeyed in color, with a rhubarb freshness and lovely tones of umami and dried apricot that adds an underlying complexity. Only 17,000 bottles will be available.

Currently, French Bloom’s core bottlings are poured on premium airlines, like La Compagnie, and available in 32 countries. Glasses are poured and bottles are popped at Michelin-star restaurants, including New York’s Jungsik and Paris’ Cheval Blanc, culinary destinations, including the Ritz in Paris, The Carlyle, and the Beverly Hills Hotel, and at Coachella. The wine industry, likewise, agrees on their efforts. Jean-François Moueix of Petrus was an early investor in the brand.