Kristian Regále Sparkling Peach Juice

My Experience:

It's very translucent, with just a light golden color. It smells like you'd expect a peach to smell, but the taste hints of a white grape juice, though it has no grape in it and tastes more peachy over time, especially as it warms up. It's tingly on the tongue, but doesn't foam up. It's slightly drier than your average juice, with a hint of bitterness, probably from the carbonation.

Works as a Wine Alternative: Yes, a sweet one. I think it would work well with an alfredo, and it'd cut through the sauce. Pair it with things that are very light.

Did I Like it: Yes, though not as much as their offering in Pomegranate-Apple, a 6 out of 10. My wife doesn't like it so much.

Would I Recommend it: Yes, I've had a ton of fun trying out all the Kristian Regále stuff.

Who Might Like it: Most anyone who likes peaches?

[Update: I've tried this again since, and I think I appreciate it even more with the right pairing.]

Effervé Sparkling Pink Lemonade

My Experience:

For our anniversary we went to Fresh & Easy and picked up a random assortment of yummy looking foods and had a meal out in the backyard. As a gift my wife got me the rest of the R.W. Knudsen Sparkling Juices I hadn't tried yet (see side bar for the round-up) but we also found this Effervé Sparkling Pink Lemonade ("Pétillante Limonade Rose" or somethin'.) They also had a non-pink version, but we went with the pink version. (What's Pink Lemonade anyway? Is it made from pink lemons? No.)

The color is light pink, looks like a traditional pink lemonade but with no pulp. Lightly carbonated, it's best served a bit colder than we had it (we only had time for a quick chill). It's quite dry for a juice, just a little sweet, and just a little tangy, and is a touch more sour during the finish. It's alright as a palate cleanser but doesn't quite leave me with the clean feeling a good one does. It's very acidic. We had it with some very acidic lemon hummus salad dressing, and the dressing made the lemonade taste sweet, so I'm glad the lemonade wasn't sweeter or it would have been overwhelming with our salad.

Looking at the ingredients, there is technically no juice, just citric acid and other ingredients, though all natural.

It doesn't really taste like lemonade. There is a hint of bitterness, but just a tiny touch, possibly from whatever sparkling water they used. Smells more lemony than it tastes. My wife likes it a lot.

Works as a Wine Alternative: Yes, in terms of being a culinary beverage.

Did I Like it: Yes! 8 out of 10!

Would I Recommend it: Yes, everyone knows what things to serve lemonade with, so pairing is easy, and it's not a huge departure from what you might expect, so it's very approachable.

Who Might Like it: Most anyone, even some people who don't like lemonade, as while it's more acidic, the sourness and sweetness are both less intense then a normal lemonade.

R.W. Knudsen's Sparkling Cranberry

My Experience:

A while back we had R.W. Knudsen's Sparkling Organic Pear Juice, and loved it! So we decided to try the rest of their juices, with high hopes.

The photo makes it look darker than it is, and it has very few, very small bubbles. It's not as tart as I thought a cranberry drink would be, and it's less sweet than the pear drink. It's lighter than most cranberry drinks I've had also. I enjoy it, but think it needs a great pairing to shine. On the negative, it's almost watery, and just a bit sweet and bit tart, overall pretty mellow for a sparkling drink. I want to try it with something light but savory and/or beefy. It's not very fizzy and surprisingly flat, and I wish it were a bit more acidic.

The last glass of the bottle was completely full of big fat red specks. The sediment was a huge downer.

I liked the taste, but with the low carbonation and high sediment content, I'm wondering if I got a bad bottle, which is not a good thing to wonder about.

Works as a Wine Alternative: Yes, though needs to be paired well.

Did I Like it: Yes, with some huge reservations, like the sediment. 4 out of 10, would have been a 6 without the sediment.

Would I Recommend it: Try a different flavor first, the pear is awesome.

Who Might Like it: It's not just for cranberry lovers, which is good in my mind.

Sparkling Water Round Up

After trying the Ariel Brut, I couldn't help but think "I wonder if I could simply use sparkling water to mimic this taste." So, I bought a bunch of sparkling waters to test the theory!

Big K Lemon Lime

Tastes like bitter sugarless 7-Up. Big bubbles, soda-like texture.

Perrier Lime

Much less fizzy, smaller bubbles, smoother to drink, not as harsh on the tongue, not as bitter and a little more lemony.

S. Pellegrino

Not as bitter as the first two. Much more watery, i.e. very lightly carbonated, and tiny tiny bubles. I prefer the taste and feel of this one.

The Perrier is ok on its own, but if you want to add sparkle to a drink, I'd grab the most strongly carbonated club soda you can find, because the other two are simply too weak to combine with something else and not simply water it down.

I thought the lime / lemon taste would be good with mexican food but it's not. Neither my wife nor I really like any of these.

When I tried the Ariel Brut, it had me wondering just how close it was to just a glass of sparkling water, and I can confidently say it's very, very different. These sparkling waters, flavored or not, are not substitutes for the complexities, taste, and craft of the Bruts.

Fre Brut

My Experience:

I recently tried Ariel Brut Cuvée (Italics makes any food or drink look better) and found a dealcoholized wine I actually liked! It got me wondering, however, if I wasn't just deluding myself. I couldn't help but feel like the same taste might be accomplished with some apple juice, grape juice, and nice sparkling water. So, thus came another great experiment. In addition to the two most common non-alcoholic Bruts I'm going to try a few sparkling waters to compare, and see if I really was duped by the bubbly Ariel or had reason to really like it. See my Sparkling Water Roundup.

I had anxiously waited to try out another brut cuvée (though Sutter Home doesn't call their Fre Brut a "cuvée") ever since the Ariel stunned me. I stopped by my regular source for Ariel and Fre, and also snagged some S. Pellegrino, Perrier Lime, and Big K Lemon Lime from Walmart and Fry's.

On the nose it reminded me of some of the chardonnays I'd had before, though the scent was much stronger and easier to catch, including when compared to Ariel Brut, and it had a light golden color compared to the Ariel's more clear coloring. The effervescence produced a steady stream of small bubbles.

Diving in, the first thing I noticed was the sweetness. I was expecting a very dry drink after Ariel's Brut, but this is almost as sweet as Welch's Sparkling White Grape Juice. I'm surprised it's called a Brut, but apparently there is some leeway in the labeling system. It's also more flavorful than Ariel's Brut, and speaking of Welch's Sparkling White Grape Juice, Fre Brut reminds me of it, though more complex and, as noted, not quite as sweet, with that grapey, fermented taste peaking through. The carbonation gives it a strong, somewhat hot bite on the tongue.

It's a little drier than most juices, is crisp and cut through the mexican food we had well, though I'm not sure it was the best pairing. Drinking this on its own was better than drinking the Ariel Brut alone, and with food Fre's Brut was complementary, whereas Ariel's Brut was contrasting, which I preferred. I would call Fre's more approachable. It was extremely light on tannins, sweet, slightly acidic and of a medium weight.

Works as a Wine Alternative: Yes, and a very good one for someone who might be new to all this.

Did I Like it: Yes, my wife and I both enjoyed it (she did not like the Ariel at all) so we'll be picking this up again in the future. 7/10

Would I Recommend it: Yes, it's very approachable.

Who Might Like it: Some people might prefer something less "juicy" than this.

[update] I put a topper on the bottle (pictured) and put it in the fridge (as directed on the bottle after opening...) It didn't taste as sweet, and I've thought of two reasons why that could be. 1.) it's less carbonated, sometimes this can make things seem less sweet, and/or 2.) I didn't drink it right after trying several bitter sparkling waters. More of the grape taste comes through.

Ariel Chardonnay (2008)

My Experience:

You can smell the fermentation when compared to juices, with pear being the main scent I noticed. It's extremely similar to the Fre Chardonnay, but slightly stronger, and a touch more acidic. It's still pretty bland, though not as watery as the Fre. The fermented, sour tang this has overrides any other taste that might come through. I'm ok with it when drinking it with food, but just barely ok.

I preferred the chardonnay juice to either of the de-alcholized chardonnays. I'd love to ask a chardonnay fan what they think of this.

I think we're just not chardonnay people. Even the Draper Valley Vineyard Chardonnay was our least favorite of the juices. It's just bland, and slightly off. My wife says it tastes like rancid grape juice. I told her that's basically what it is, but that didn't change her opinion. :)

We tried it with Artichoke & Tomato Chicken (great chicken, not great pairing, though I thought it would be), Orange Cheesecake (which made it taste like water), and a hotdog (actually the best pairing I had, but still just ok.)

Works as a Wine Alternative: It's definitely got a bit of winey taste to it, but I can't come up with anything I'd want to eat this with.

Did I Like it: No. (3/10)

Would I Recommend it: Probably not. Try Draper Valley Vineyards Chardonnay varietal grape juice instead.

Who Might Like it: Chardonnay fans? You tell me.

Ariel Brut Cuvée

My Experience:

Champagne. In short, Champagne is a sparkling white wine (chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier), but the term Champagne is only to be used from wines coming from the Champagne region in France. So other wines that are made in the same method are often marketed by descriptors like Brut, or Cuvée. Brut is referring to how dry, or unsweet, the wine is, as explained here. Cuvée means that it is made from a mix of vintages, rather than single year. Cuvée is relatively common for Champagne, but particularly good vintage are sometimes separated and made into a vintage Champagne, or millesimé.

Smells a lot like other still Chardonnays I've had, it's cold though so it's hard to pick up the scent. Very fizzy, very dry, somewhat bitter, the liquid flutters away quickly due to being well carbonated. It has small sparkling bubbles that rise in a gentle steady stream. This brut is carbonated using the Charmat method.

It's not fruity at all, and has more acid than previous Chardonnays I've tried. The taste or flavor itself is mild, and it isn't complex, it's rather one-note. It finishes a touch more sweetly, but just a touch.

I usually like sweet foods, so it's surprising that I like this so much, I think it pairs well with sweeter foods because of the contrast it provides. Cammy Blackstone, the host of Munchcast has a different opinion about pairing wines with sweet/junkfood, though one of her guests agrees with me on Episode 64 "Junk Food and Wine Pairings"

While I like this, I'd love to try a Sec or Demi-Sec instead of a Brut, and compare.

On it's own it's probably not something I'd drink often, but with the food (we had 4 cheese lasagna macaroni that night) it was fantastic.

My wife says the water tastes sweet compared to the Brut. She gave up on it quickly, and doesn't like its bitterness at all. Not surprising from a juice lover.

I only have one problem. The taste kinda reminds of that one time I tried some plain club soda when I was a kid. I hope all the effort put into this Brut makes it significantly better than plain 'ol sparkling water or tonic water. Look for a club soda / tonic water / Fre Brut comparison in the future.

We later made a Mimosa with this and it was fantastic! My wife actually drank it. I'd buy again just for that. I've always liked 7up and orange juice, but I prefer this. I'm also interested in mixing this with a very sweet drink like Martinelli's.

Works as a wine Alternative: Absolutely.

Did I like it: I liked it a lot, and my wife hated it absolutely. 7 out of 10.

Would I Recommend it: Yes. You have to find out if you like this or not. It's very different from any juice you've tried

Who Might Like it: If you like it dry, this is it.