No wine for a month? For Ilja Gort, that sounded like a nightmare for years. But now that the Netherlands' most famous winemaker is launching his very first alcohol-free white wine, he decides: I'm going for it. Dry January it is.
Text: Fela de Wit | Source and image: Lot of Brands
Together with his son Klaas, he markets the GoGo Zero Sauvignon Blanc. And that, according to themselves, is “the first non-alcoholic white wine that can be enjoyed.” No empty promise: it has been tinkered with for years.
Less alcohol is the new reality
“Four years ago, we already saw that people were starting to drink less alcohol,” says Gort. “We started with an alcohol-free rosé with bubbles. That went so well that we thought: okay, now we'll also have a white and red without bubbles. Only... that turned out not to be so simple.”
At the château in France, son Klaas gathered around him a club of young winemakers. Not the types who “just make wine alcohol-free”, but nerds who want to get it right down to the millilitre. They developed their own method that keeps wine fresh and fruity, even two to three days after opening. “Many producers see non-alcoholic wine as a necessary evil,” says Gort. “But for this team, it's their passion. And you can taste that.”
After two years of experimentation, he succeeded: an alcohol-free Sauvignon Blanc that Gort says is barely distinguishable from a regular one. And so he drinks it himself. “To reinforce my belief in flavour, I'm going to participate in Dry January for the first time. No wine for a whole month! Terrible... I think I need to be put under the supervision of a doctor and psychiatrist.” he jokes.
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