Description
Giesen Wines: Leaders in Non-Alcoholic Wine
The story that leads to modern-day Giesen Wines stems back to 1981. In an age before smartphones, wifi, and Instagram, how did anyone traveling the world from Germany cure homesickness? Particularly when they were in Christchurch, New Zealand?
In the case of older Giesen brothers Theo and Alex, the response is all rather unusual. The duo casually bought a small parcel of land and planted what was, at the time, the world’s most southern vineyard.
Four years later they were joined by younger brother Marcel, who fresh out of wine school was the final piece in the creation Giesen wines puzzle.
How did Giesen begin creating non-alcoholic wine?
The Giesen non-alcoholic wine range began its journey in 2019, with the winemakers all in on a month-long fitness challenge. The realisation quickly set in that the Giesen winemaking team was going to need to cut alcohol too.
From there the idea of creating wine without the alcohol began to gather steam and, with that, the winemakers got to work.
A couple of years later the range continues to grow in popularity as more and more people seek out high-quality, full-bodied, and flavourful wines to balance their alcohol consumption.
What Zero Alcohol wines do Giesen Make?
The non-alcoholic Giesen Wines range is developed using is currently made up of:
- Giesen Pinot Gris; and
- Giesen Sauvignon Blanc.
The Alcohol Free Sauvignon Blanc holds a special place in the non-alcoholic space as it is the World’s very first New Zealand Zero Alcohol Sauvignon Blanc.
How is Alcohol Free Wine Made?
Giesen says they take a zero-compromise approach to the ingredients and processes behind their range of non-alcoholic or zero alcohol wines.
Duncan Shoulder, Chief Winemaker, Giesen Wines says about the wine base used for the non-alcoholic range:
- “We absolutely don’t compromise on the quality of the base wine that we use to make the products”; and
- that Giesen uses “very high-quality Sauvignon Blanc and other varieties now as well – to create [our] no alcohol wines”.
When talking about the technology and process behind the wines, Shoulder says “we also don’t compromise on the process” and that Giesen has invested in onsite spinning cone technology” in-house which allows the team to “control every part of the process to get the best quality wine that we can”.
Looking for more information on spinning cone technology? I’ve dropped a link to a recent blog I have put together about the video done by Duncan Shoulder, Chief Winemaker, Giesen Wines.
Buy Giesen Non-Alcoholic Wine.
Like many wine large-scale winemakers, the Giesen non-alcoholic wines benefit from a wide array of sale points and distribution.
The benefit for you is that you’re always in luck if you want to pick up a bottle on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Check out the links below to help you track down a bottle or two:
Looking for the latest non-alcoholic drinks news? Check out the Non-Alcoholic Drinks Podcast and the Tipple Zero Blog.
