Rouge en Voiture: Redefining Alcohol-Free Red

There is pepper in Cul Sec’s Rouge en Voiture. The makers add it for throat feel, to mimic a little of what alcohol does. Fleur from de Fruitslagers told me so when we opened the bottle together in episode 8 of Sparks. I had just said I tasted some heat in it.

I spotted a car on the label. Test passed, I said.

How it’s built

The base is juice from Sangiovese grapes. Fleur told me they use organic grapes for all their drinks and choose not to dealcoholise wine because, in her view, too much flavour is lost that way. Water infusions, a slow ferment and tinctures join the juice. Those tinctures are infusions on alcohol, and they bring back volatile aromas. They are added drop by drop, up to a maximum of 0.5 percent alcohol; Fleur said the drinks now sit at 0.4 percent or lower.

Two ingredients never came up with the orange L’étable Fumé. The first is smoked peat, which Fleur says the makers gather themselves. The second is the pepper. The light fizz is added CO2, as in the orange.

In the glass

Fleur adds fruit and floral notes, hibiscus for one, and redcurrant. She calls it full of flavour and full of character, and says this is not a bottle that makes you think you are about to drink juice. That is the maker’s reading, though I recognised it.

At first I put the smokiness down to Sangiovese, which often has a smoky side. Fleur agreed about the smoke and pointed to the smoked peat.

What to watch for

Start with the pepper. It is there to imitate alcohol, and if you don’t miss that feeling in your throat you may find it a trick. I didn’t find it sharp, but it is there. Fleur wasn’t sure which pepper it is.

That ties in with the second point. Fleur didn’t create the drinks; she helped with production. What I write here about how the drink is built is her explanation, and I had no way of checking it.

Check which bottle you are buying, too. I tasted the earlier version, made on Sangiovese. The 2025 cuvée is a different drink. That label lists Pinot Noir, Kékfrankos and Dornfelder, with lacto-fermented blackcurrant, blackberry, beetroot and peach, and the colour is much darker. What’s on sale now will probably taste different from what I describe here.

The grapes are organic, the bottle as a whole is not. Cul Sec carries no organic certification, because not every ingredient is organic.

I tasted a single bottle, once.

Maker

Cul Sec, de Fruitslagers

Drink

Rouge en Voiture, red

Base

Juice from Sangiovese grapes

Method

Water infusions, slow ferment, tinctures

Signature

Smoked peat, pepper for throat feel

Alcohol

Maximum 0.5%; now 0.4% or lower, according to Fleur

Fizz

Added CO2

Certification

No organic certification; the grapes are organic

The price didn’t come up in the recording.

More information: fruitslagers.nl/culsec

Sources

• My own tasting note and conversation with Fleur from de Fruitslagers, Sparks ep. 8
• Cul Sec at de Fruitslagers: fruitslagers.nl/bedrijven/culsec