#JustWhenYouThoughtItCouldntGetWorse
If it gets someone to try wine instead of White Claw, I am all for it.
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Quit that channel, you are not the proper demographic. This should be cause for some introspection on your part.
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These low calorie wines are trending in the big box and grocery industries.
Cupcake Lighthearted, Kim Crawford Illuminate, Kendall Jackson Low Calorie, and now Meiomi Bright.
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Do they replace the RS with erythritol? Aspartame?
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I would guess that alcohol is reduced… (about 7 cal/gram vs 4cal/g for carbs)
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Interesting that the website shows 8% ABV. I’m guessing they use Reverse Osmosis to remove alcohol while minimizing the impact on flavor profile. Lab tests in Ontario shows 28 g/l of RS for regular meomi. To hit that calorie level while maintaining the profile of that wine I also expect there is an artificial sweetener added in lieu of the RS. Stevia perhaps?
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So not only is the wine not dry, but it’s fake not dry?
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I think it will come to be known as “grossage”
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You are correct sir.
For Kim Crawford winemaker Edmonds, creating a lighter Marlborough sauvignon blanc with all of the hallmark flavors of the region was a combination of vineyard management and spinning cone technology. “For sauvignon blanc, it’s about managing irrigation, keeping a close eye on soil and nutrition, and managing the canopy to provide the air flow and shade required to bring its tropical and citrus characters to life,” he says. “Not only do we source grapes from the best vineyards across Marlborough and Hawkes Bay, but we leverage spinning cone technology to reduce the alcohol from a portion of the base wine.” Kim Crawford’s Illuminate Sauvignon Blanc comes together by blending a portion of dealcoholized wine with the base wine, for a resulting low calorie wine that has only 7% alcohol and 70 calories per glass, with a light body and expressive flavors of passionfruit, guava, and citrus.
Full on flavor, not so full on calories, this growing trend in lighter wines is definitely one worth raising a glass to. Here are a few of our favorite low calorie wines.
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Do they sell “Skinny Girl” wine yet?
Had this sneak into a blind tasting. It’s as bad as you can imagine. Downright awful.
While not the Meomi, I served my wife the Kim Crawford Illuminate (low alcohol/low cal) and she thought I served her a Sauv Blanc that had been open in the fridge for a week.
I make no- and low-alcohol wines for a living so I can probably help answer questions here if people have them.
The low-alcohol category is driven strongly by calorie claims. Most of the wines are 7-9% alcohol, reduced by either reverse osmosis or vacuum distillation (the latter is what my company does). The calories are listed per 150 mL glass, so every 1% drop in alcohol will drop you about 8 calories per serving. 8 calories per serving is equivalent to exactly 2g of sugar, or 13 g/L, so if you want to get a little extra sugar in there you can either drop your alcohol further or live with the higher calorie content. That’s why Meomi Bright is fairly high in calories - 90 cal is high for this segment of the market, which is mostly focused at the 80-85 cal range, and Kim Crawford’s get down to 70 cal by keeping the wines quite dry and lowering alcohol all the way to 7%
Wines with at least 7% alcohol that want to call themselves wine have the same ingredient restrictions as any standard wine so none of these contain stevia or artificial sweeteners.
Several large wineries have brands in this “lifestyle” area now. Bota Breeze is the largest by volume. Kendall Jackson makes 9% wines; there’s also Sunny With a Chance of Flowers, the “lighthearted” Cupcake line, Klean, etc.
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Most names here are bad wine to begin with. Low alcohol may actually be an improvement from not drinkable to barely drinkable.
Light beer draws parallels for me. More like beer flavored water. Why bother?
I get the “why bother” question a lot. I’ll take it in good faith and answer it here. Some people want lower calorie wine, some people want to be able to drink the same amount of a wine that they like without consuming as much alcohol. Some people are sensitive to the flavor of alcohol and prefer lower alcohol options.
There are plenty of reasons people want to drink lower alcohol wines, and that extends all the way from box wine to higher end stuff, too. There are many people on this board who prefer 12% wines to 15% wines. Many for style/taste reasons but some also for the ability to enjoy the sensory properties of a couple glasses of wine without getting tipsy or having a headache in the morning. Plenty of world class wineries around the world have mechanically reduced the alcohol content of their wines, probably including some wines you’ve enjoyed.
I don’t think these 7-9% wines are ever going to dominate the market, but the market for them is growing (unlike the US full strength wine market, which shrank last year and is shrinking this year) and, as it does, so too will the range and quality. I talk with wineries of all styles, sizes, and price points about these kinds of endeavors and there’s plenty of interest across the board. Right now the economics only really work if you’re already a large established winery.
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Anything that sparks interest or keeps interest in wine is good as far as I’m concerned. Drinkers of “lite” drinks will likely be offered THC drinks which can be 0 calories while alcoholic wine obviously can never be — and as legalization expands, so too will the alternative products for wine. So if this fills a niche for those folks, then great. And maybe over time they’ll get to taste a few glasses of good stuff and adapt their preferences. I enjoy a good laugh at Caymus’s expense all the time, but 10 years ago, it’s what got me into wine, so I’ll never shit on the people drinking it.
Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it “bad”.
These SKUs sell a lot of wine, so clearly there are consumers who do bother.
Is it something I’d (or most WB’ers, I’d venture to guess) choose to drink? Probably not. Do I begrudge someone trying to find a new way to market and sell wine where there’s an ocean of competition? No.
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100%, although sub Silver Oak in my case.
How about a wine spritzer for those that want lower alcohol or lower calories. Do people drink them anymore? My mother used to drink them when I was young.
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