What I like most about Fre wines is their availability. Locally, I can pick it up at Total Wine or even my neighborhood Publix. The convenience is great because you don’t have to wait 2-7 days to receive an online order. They’re also available on Amazon Prime, perfect for those weekly in-home deliveries.
For our review, I ordered our wines directly from the FreWines.com website. With no signature required, it was easy to receive the package. Given their impressive selection, we decided to try one of each. You get to shop across their sister brands, so we also purchased some Luminara wines as well as a Tres Agave mixer (more reviews to come!)
Having worked in the wine industry, I understand the difficulty of having your product readily available to your consumers, in as many places as possible. From the shelf space to negotiated discounts, it would generally take a brand anywhere from 2-5 years to achieve these placements depending on the company’s backing and connections. This leads to possibly the most important fact about the Fre brand and the major company that produces it – Sutter Home. Just want to see the rating? Skip ahead.
Does Sutter Home make non-alcoholic sparkling wine?
You’ve probably seen or heard of Sutter Home and its widely available wines. They are commercially produced in California, and available around the country. Although they aren’t known for the quality of wines, they produce a very consistent product that’s palatable for most wine consumers. Because of their success, it’s quite surprising that they would take on the challenge of producing non-alcoholic wines. With the industry still very much in its early days, it’s a risk to take on new “wines” that may not do well. The typical strategy is to let an entrepreneur invest their time and energy to create a new product/ brand. Once the brand builds a cult following or established niche, then a larger company just buys a stake in the company. After all, why bet on something unknown when you can have a sure thing?
This shows that companies are taking non-alcoholic beverages seriously. No established company would invest in something that doesn’t have a good chance of becoming successful. It is refreshing news for UnBuzz drinkers like us because it means there will be more options available due to competition and continued innovation in this drink category.
How is Fre Sparkling Brut Dealcoholized?
“We source the fruit for our alcohol-removed Sparkling Brut from cool, foggy vineyards in California’s premier marine-influenced regions, where grapes ripen slowly on the vine, developing bright acidity and crisp flavor. Our winemakers carefully craft this Sparkling Brut using traditional methods; then our exclusive spinning cone process gently removes the alcohol while preserving the wine’s delicate aromas and flavors.”
Fre Dealcoholized Sparkling Brut First Impressions
The presentation is what you would expect of typical bubbly wine packaging: pull tab, foil, wire cage, and cork. You get all the typical experience of opening a new bottle of bubbly!
For the sparkling brut, we put it in the chill zone of our fridge and serve it cold. According to the Wine Alchemist, you should always serve bubbly between 35 and 38 degrees. This helps to keep the carbon dioxide from evaporating immediately, which causes the bubbly wines to go flat.
The first thing I noticed about Fre sparkling was the immediate smell similar to juice. If you’ve ever opened kid’s champagne or Martinelli’s bubbly, it is quite similar to that experience. I was already expecting a sweeter drink that was more juice than wine.
The bubbles were big and bubbled up quickly, even when chilled. You get a subtle hint of alcohol, but it dissipates almost immediately once the bottle is opened. The taste was not as sweet as I thought it’d be, but very much like a bubbled, watered-down grape juice. Close your eyes and you get a hint of green apple flavor.
What does the Non-Alcoholic Fre Sparkling Brut taste like?
“True happiness lies in the freedom to be yourself.” “The Sophisticated Alternative. With the effervescent fizz in the glass, our alcohol-removed sparkling wine makes any occasion special. Cascades of tiny bubbles release green apple and ripe pear aromas, while crisp flavors of apple and strawberry delight your palate. Beautifully balanced with a dry, refreshing finish.”
FreWines.com
Based solely on taste this un-wine could rank one score higher but ultimately the production of this UnWine lands it at 2 sips. When we looked at the ingredients of this drink – it raises some questions.
First, it’s 35% juice. For most traditional wines, adding 35% juice back to the wine is forbidden! However since this is non-alcoholic, we’re in a slightly different ball game. Either way, there’s an argument to be made that most of this drink is juice, which contains a lot of natural sugars.
Look a bit further and you’ll see that there are some additives that have also been included. Unlike typical wines, non-alcoholic wines must adhere to food and drink labeling standards. This means they must declare all the ingredients they use to produce their wines, including Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, and Potassium Metabisulfite. It doesn’t sound like ingredients I’d normally consume, and a quick glance at the “-ite” and “-ate” would lead me to believe that they’re chemicals of some sort. They are approved to be used in small doses, but I wouldn’t recommend consuming these in large quantities.
Fre Sparkling Brut Nutritional Breakdown
Calories per 8 fl oz: 90 Calories (3 servings per bottle) Sodium: 25mg (1%), Total Carbohydrate: 25g (8%) [Total Sugars 19g] Calcium: 25mg (2%), Iron: 0.5 mg (2%), Potassium 360mg (10%)
Fre Sparkling Brut Ingredients: Contains 35% juice. Dealcoholized White Wine, Grape Juice, Grape Concentrate, Natural Flavors, Carbon Dioxide, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate, Potassium Metabisulfite (to protect the natural flavor, clarity, and color.)
Serve: Slightly Chilled, Refrigerate after opening.
Pairing: Creamy seafood pastas, sushi, fried chicken, nutty cheeses, potato blinis with caviar or simply potato chips.
Price: $8:00 / bottle (on the Fre Wines Website) and $19.99 from Amazon.
Have you seen Fre wines in your store? Tell us what you think in the comments below. Would you give them a higher rating?