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Non-alcoholic grape juice

One market that Northwest wineries continue to miss is the non-alcoholic grape juice crowd.

Last night merely reinforced that for me.

Dwight and Barbara Sidway -- proprietors of the Geiser Grand Hotel in Baker City, Ore. -- have established a shoulder-season weekend event focused around Northwest wine appreciation. This is my second year serving as their wine guide, and the historic 30-room downtown hotel is filled with a traveling group from Harstine Island in Washington's Puget Sound.

The tour guides are Jim Cary, a retired Oregon State University professor, and his wife, Mary Alice. Both are longtime fans of Northwest wines. In fact, they used to lead wine tours throughout the region and are shareholders in Willamette Valley Vineyards.

It's not unusual for there to be at least one teetotaling spouse in any large group, so with that in mind, I brought a bottle of Navarro (Calif.) Vineyards 2007 Pinot Noir non-alcoholic grape juice to the Friday night meet-and-greet.

And which wine prompted the most discussion? This beautiful non-wine is from the Alexander Valley, about 25 miles inland from the Mendocino County coastline. As it turned out, there were two spouse who weren't wine drinkers, and they appreciated the fact that they could walk around the party with something red in their wine glass.

"Is this from the Northwest?" one asked.

I hated to tell them it was from California, although Navarro is among the most respected wineries in the North America. (Just ask our own Dan Berger. And I suspect Eric Asimov of the New York Times will agree with him).

"How can I get some?" asked another.

"Well, because it's non-alcoholic, you can order it over the Internet from
Navarro and have it shipped to you without any problem," I told her.

Cost is $11 per bottle, so it's not as though they are giving the stuff away. However, it is remarkable, a show-stopper and will earn you brownie points from at least one person attending a gathering such as this. They also produce a Gewurztraminer grape juice, but since I'm in Oregon, I brought the Pinot Noir.

I just hope someone in the Northwest begins to tap this market. And if they are, please let us know.

-- Eric Degerman

By Degerman at Mar 8 2008 - 5:05pm | General wine discussion | previous forum topic | next forum topic | 608 reads

non-alcoholic grape juice

There is good news in the Northwest's non-alcoholic juice industry. Though Willamette Valley Vineyards has dropped its only juice product, there are multiple Oregon vineyards producing varietal juice including pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, golden muscat, chardonnay, riesling, and even a blend of pinot noir, pinot gris, and pinot blanc. These wineries are part of a growing trend of producers bottling premium celebratory juices in 750ml glass. To see an example of what's available from domestic and international sources, check out the Oregon-based SweetwaterCellars.com.

By me4juice at Sat, 07/19/2008 - 10:37am | login or register to post comments

Another squeezing of the grape juice thread

This morning, the Geiser Grand Hotel had a weekend brunch that featured two Northwest sparklers -- a Domaine Meriwether 1998 Clatsop Cuvee and the Domaine Ste. Michelle NV Brut.

And what were people asking me about? Still, the Navarro Pinot Noir grape juice from Friday night!

I ended up giving three people the URL for Navarro Vineyards so they could order some grape juice. That bottle and the excellent food pairings by executive chef Pedro T. Cabrales were the talk of the weekend.

People also loved the Hogue Cellars 2006 Pinot Grigio, the screwcap and the story of the name change.

Another rather fascinating wine was the Snoqualmie Vineyards 2003 Cirque de Rose, made by Joy Andersen from Cabernet Sauvignon. It still was holding its own, a bit off-dry with lots of black cherries, although the synthetic cork has me concerned. Oxidation was peeking in the background. This is definitely in the "drink now" category, and I was somewhat stunned/dismayed this wine still was in a distributor's warehouse.

I'll close by adding there was a groan in the dining room when I passed along news that Snoqualmie has discontinued its Cirque de Rose program. Folks really enjoyed the wine with the wedge of iceburg lettuce, served with the delicious house blue cheese salad dressing.

By Degerman at Sun, 03/09/2008 - 12:47pm | login or register to post comments

Grape juice

One of my fondest memories was drinking fresh Riesling juice years ago at Powers Winery in Kennewick, Wash., during Catch the Crush.

This past fall, I gave my daughter some fresh Sangiovese juice from grapes I processed from my backyard. She loved it. I've saved some of that juice (frozen in one-gallon bags) to make Sangiovese juice popsicles for her this summer.

With the emphasis the past several years on drunken driving and designated drivers, I would think there would be a great market for grape juice. There is plenty of juice to do this. It would take not much effort for a winery to make 50 or 100 cases of wine grape juice for the wine-touring public to buy and enjoy.

By aperdue at Sun, 03/09/2008 - 9:35am | login or register to post comments

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