Kolonne Null Gelblack: alcohol-free Riesling

Take the alcohol out of a Riesling from a house that dates back to 1720, and you owe someone an explanation. Schloss Johannisberg is the oldest Riesling estate in the world. The Kolonne Null Gelblack takes that classic Rheingau style and strips the alcohol out. Sacrilege, or a masterstroke? The bottle they sent me answered in a way neither camp really wants to hear.

Kolonne Null is not an outsider pulling a party trick. The Berlin lab is one of the more serious names in alcohol-free wine, and for this cuvée it worked with Domäne Schloss Johannisberg itself. Its predecessor, Grünlack XO, scored 93 points from James Suckling and sold out in no time. That is the bar the Gelblack has to clear.

Producer

Kolonne Null, with Domäne Schloss Johannisberg

Wine

Gelblack, alcohol-free Riesling

Origin

Rheingau, Germany, loess and slate

Method

Dealcoholized by vacuum distillation

Alcohol

0.0%

Residual sugar

38 g/l (3.8 g per 100 ml)

Acidity

6.4 g/l

Calories

20 kcal per 100 ml

Price

€19.90

Tasting note

Tasting Note

Tasting note

Appearance

Pale straw, crystal clear.

Nose

Riesling right away. Citrus and green apple up front, then riper apple, a little pear and melon, and underneath the wet stone you hope for in the Rheingau. Purist, no make-up.

Palate

Lively acidity, exactly the way a young Riesling should prickle. Green apple and citrus, a faint saline edge with a sweet touch around it. Blind, I would have hesitated over whether there was any alcohol in the glass.

Finish

Fresh and dry-seeming, but shorter than the real thing. Where a Riesling with alcohol keeps going, the Gelblack falls quiet a beat sooner.

Quality

Cleverly built, and the acidity carries it. For the occasion it is made for, it convinces. The trade-offs sit in the details below.

The trick: alcohol out, flavour in

Kolonne Null ferments a real Riesling first, then draws the alcohol back out with vacuum distillation. Under low pressure alcohol boils off at a low temperature, so most of the aromatics survive. But you lose more than the alcohol. Alcohol gives a wine body, a hint of sweetness and length. Remove it, and a hole opens up.

Kolonne Null fills part of that hole with residual sugar: 38 grams per litre, roughly 4.7 grams in a 125 ml glass. That sounds like a lot, but the acidity of 6.4 grams per litre pulls it taut again. The net result is 20 calories per 100 ml, a fraction of ordinary wine. That is the equation behind every good alcohol-free wine: acid against sugar, and hoping you cannot taste the gap.

Two honest caveats

Those 38 grams of sugar do their job, but you notice them. The Gelblack reads more off-dry than the bone-dry, high-tension Riesling the label implies. If you want that tight Rheingau precision, you get something rounder and friendlier instead. It is not a flaw, it is the cost of 0.0 percent. Just say so on the tin.

Then the price. At €19.90 a bottle, or €26.53 per litre, you are paying what a serious real Rheingau Riesling costs. You pay for the technology and for the Schloss Johannisberg name, not for a cheap stand-in. Fair enough, but do not kid yourself: this is a deliberate choice, not a bargain. At the time of writing the bottle is also on backorder, so patience comes with the package.

Where and when

Available through kolonnenull.com and through specialist alcohol-free shops. If you want an easier, more forgiving style, plenty of alcohol-free whites aim lower. The Gelblack asks to be judged as wine, and mostly holds that line.

Serve it cold, 6 to 8 degrees, in a proper wine glass. Treat it as wine, not as a soft drink. For the host who is driving later, the guest who is pregnant, or the evening you choose zero on purpose without giving up on something serious: this is the bottle. Choose better, drink less, and sometimes none at all. The Gelblack makes that last part a good deal easier.

Taste along

Kolonne Null sent me the Gelblack and I tasted it on camera. Watch the tasting:

Seeing this on Instagram? Reply GELBLACK under the reel and I will send you the full story in a DM.

Sources

• Primary source: Kolonne Null, Gelblack product page — accessed July 2026

Bottle received as a press sample from Kolonne Null, find them at @kolonnenull. No payment; the opinion is my own.