Dry January – Leiner Field Blends

This January, I am taking a closer look at some proxys. Those beverages a similar to wine, but are not nonalcoholic wine. The first one comes from the Leiner vineyard. Let us see how the non-alcoholic drink can stand up for itself.

With their Field Blend series Leiner created a non-alcoholic alternative to their wines. Instead of an alcoholic fermentation, the Leiners used Kambucha cultures in combination with herbs and spices. The Lemon Thyme is based on white grape juice, white beets, ginger juice, lemon thyme, lorel, and smoke salt.

The Field Blend starts with a complex combination of herbs, ginger and kombucha. There was some sweetness which is well balanced by an acidity reminding me of sour apples. Through the smoke salt the proxy also has some minerality towards the aftertaste. To make things short, the Lemon Thyme for me tastes like a combination of Ginger Ale and a German organic herbal lemonade. I enjoyed it very much and it definitely will not be the last time I am serving this as an alternative to wine!