During our dry January, we decided to try some non-alcoholic wines to see what they were like.
We quickly realized that sparkling NA wine was among our favorite, as the characteristics of the bubbles and, often, added sugar to offset the lack of alcohol, works nicely for the style. To put it bluntly, sparkling wine is sometimes sweet, so added sugar works.
Noughty makes an interesting sparkling Chardonnay that, while well made, reminded us a bit more like a sparkling cider than it did a sparkling wine.
Noughty NA Chardonnay Tastes Cider-Like
This non-alcoholic sparkling wine was pale lemon in color with medium aromas of lemon, yellow apple, pear, nectarine, light Brettanomyces, white flower, honey suckle, and a prominent grape note.
On the palate it was off-dry with high acidity, medium body and flavor intensity, and a short finish. We found flavors of lemon, lime, pear, nectarine, yellow apple, pineapple, and grapefruit.
This was a pretty well made non-alcoholic wine; however, the acidity was a bit unusual in its nature here as it felt like the wine had a hit of citric acid in it and gave a character that was reminiscent more of a sparkling cider than a sparkling wine.
NA Sparkling Chardonnay Food Pairing – Kimchi Jjigae
We paired this sparkling non-alcoholic wine with a spicy kimchi jjigae stew as we thought the high acidity would hold up nicely with the intense dish. While this one did, we didn’t really get much flavor change in the slightest- the dominant cider-esque characteristic held through.
Score: 2 / 5
We are okay on this one.
Overall, Noughty’s NA Chardonnay is, for a non-alcoholic sparkling wine at least, fairly well made. That said, we couldn’t quite get over the acidic nature of this wine and, while still enjoyable, we feel it is not for us.
We purchased this bottle of Noughty NA wine locally and enjoyed it in 2024. As of publishing, it was available on Amazon.
