Cul Sec: Alcohol-Free Wines with Wine-World Depth

Cul Sec alcohol-free wine comes from de Fruitslagers, and is aimed at natural wine drinkers. I tasted L’étable Fumé and Rouge en Voiture with Fleur of de Fruitslagers for episode 8 of Sparks. She is clear that it isn’t natural wine, since the process is different. What they chased are the flavours natural wine drinkers know.

Regenerative roots

De Fruitslagers is the umbrella name for a cluster of brands. They began nine or ten years ago with Roze Bunker, a syrup brand, and over the past year launched Cul Sec and the alcohol-free spirits of Fieldkite. Their own leftover streams become condiments. Herbs and other ingredients come from regenerative farmers and growers, which Fleur says is about restoring the landscape and improving the soil.

How it’s built

The team took a technical look at what wine does on your tongue and in your throat, and how to recreate that without alcohol. They deliberately don’t dealcoholise wine, because in Fleur’s view too much flavour is lost that way. The base is juice from organic grapes: Pecorino for the orange, Sangiovese for the red. Water-based infusions and a slow fermentation follow; for L’étable Fumé the skins and must go onto kombucha to draw out the tannins.

Finally they add tinctures drop by drop, infusions in alcohol, up to the 0.5 percent alcohol mark. Fleur thinks the current level is 0.4 percent or lower, enough to bring back the volatile aromas. The light sparkle is added carbon dioxide, there to stop the drink feeling flat.

In the glass

Bits float in L’étable Fumé, and as with natural wine, I rather like that. I get something floral, white tea and jasmine. Fleur picks out dried herbs such as alfalfa and verbena, pear and a funky undertone; the bitterness comes from gentian root. It has the earthy edge of natural wine, doesn’t taste like juice and lingers long and pleasantly.

Rouge en Voiture is Sangiovese-based, and Fleur finds hibiscus and redcurrant in it. I taste ripe red fruit, spice and a little smoke, plus a heat that recalls red chilli minus the burn. The recipe explains it: pepper goes in to mimic the throat feel of alcohol, and for the smoke Fleur says they use smoked peat.

As an aperitif

Fleur likes L’étable Fumé as an aperitif, and she sees plenty of restaurants pouring it that way because of its bold flavour. On a summer terrace I wouldn’t miss the alcohol.

Caveats

The grapes are organic, but the bottle is not certified organic. Not every ingredient is: regenerative farmers often have no certification, and sometimes de Fruitslagers choose a leftover stream over an organic product.

Fleur didn’t create the drinks, and she couldn’t say exactly what the floating particles are beyond leftovers from filtered herb infusions. I tasted two bottles the producer sent me, so this is a first impression; I haven’t compared them with other alcohol-free wines.

More information: fruitslagers.nl/culsec

Sources

• Cul Sec / Fruitslagers (official): culsec.com