An alcohol-free rosé made from fig leaves

It cannot legally be called "alcohol-free wine," as the term has no legal existence, with European regulations only recognizing the term "de-alcoholized wine." Nor can it be called "wine," particularly given its specific manufacturing process involving fermentation.

However, Bertrand Michat's Granith sparkling rosé, produced in Saint-Péray, near Valence, in the Drôme region, as it is marketed, intends to enter the non-alcoholic wine market.

This is an increasingly popular consumption method, particularly among the younger generation. The global market for non-alcoholic wines is booming and will grow from nearly €8 billion today to €14 billion by the end of 2031.

The Granith brand was launched in 2022 after two years of research and recipe development, after testing more than 150 natural and organic ingredients (aromatic plants, fruits, spices, roots, herbs, teas, hydrosols, spring waters, purified waters, micro-filtered waters, etc.).

The brand's sparkling rosé has just won a Gold Medal at the 2025 World Alcohol-Free Awards. Judges' tasting note: "Coral in color, this vegetal sparkling wine reveals flavors of rose, red fruits, tea, citrus, cinnamon, honey, and apple. It has a slight acidity, a beautiful texture on the palate, and a harmonious balance between sweetness and a dry, straightforward side. With great personality, it can be enjoyed as an aperitif, but its freshness also makes it a complex and versatile choice to accompany various dishes. "

The recipe: sage from Ardèche, rosemary from Drôme, pomegranate juice from Ardèche, dried fig leaves, etc., to which verjuice from Périgord is added.

"The main difference with wine is that there is no fermentation," explains Bertrand Michat, who knows the wine market well, having worked for years internationally to market Rhône Valley wines. "It's made from organic fig leaves that I harvested by hand, dried for 60 days on wooden crates, and then combined with other aromatic plants, rosemary, wild blueberry, there is also muscat grape juice and verjuice, the very important element.

And the other big difference with the winemaking process is that although there is maceration, there is no fermentation, and therefore no production of alcohol.

Read the full transcript of the interview with Bertrand Michat

Good morning.

That's right. The main difference with wine is that there's no fermentation. It's made from fig leaves—in the case of sparkling wine, organic fig leaves that I harvested by hand and dried for 60 days on wooden crates. Then I combined them with other aromatic plants: rosemary, wild blueberry, Muscat grape juice from the Drôme, and verjuice, which is always a very important element.

There you have it. It's a grape juice made from grapes that are harvested before they are ripe, that is, at the end of July or beginning of August depending on the terroir. It's a winemaking and gastronomic tradition; it was an acidifier used by all the great chefs for nearly 1,000 years, and was somewhat forgotten in the 20th century in favor of lemon juice.

There you have it. Citrus fruits have arrived and have taken over a bit. Some have made acidifications with vinegar or cider vinegar, but it's true that verjuice is a noble and gastronomic product that I'm keen to bring back into fashion, like certain cooks or certain bartenders.

In fact, it's a maceration, but there's no fermentation. There's no start to fermentation. We put the dry plants first for 60 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the temperatures, then we add the liquids and let them precipitate for at least a whole night, to have as little filtration as possible and keep the most material, aroma and taste quality of each element.

Relatively simple, yes, you could say. Harvesting and assembly take a little longer, but the manufacturing process can be done in two days.

I worked in the wine industry for 25 years.

Mainly in the Rhône Valley. I worked a little in Languedoc, a little in Burgundy too, I worked for a property in Aloxe-Corton. I also explored a lot of wine-growing terroirs. Since I traveled a lot in northern Europe in particular, that's where I saw the first alcohol-free creations arrive in 2015, 2016, 2017, which were made on-site by gourmet restaurants, where the cooks worked with the bar, with the sommelier, with the ingredients they had on hand, and they made drinks on site. I tasted several of them, I said to myself that there was certainly something very interesting to do in the Drôme and in the Ardèche, where I am based, because we have all the products on hand. We have a lot of farmers.

That's right. For the sparkling rosé. In the other, in the red, there are some products that come a little further afield, but for the sparkling wine, which is the latest creation, the one that just won the gold medal at the World Alcohol-Free Awards, the international alcohol-free competition, these are only local products from Drôme and Ardèche, less than 100 kilometers around the production site.

Non-alcoholic beverages in general, indeed. We see that beer, especially non-alcoholic beers, whether from large, fairly industrial manufacturers or certain small breweries, is becoming a very important market. It's often the gateway to non-alcoholic beverages: it's the simplest, the most accessible. Then, people move on to other offerings like non-alcoholic aperitifs, dealcoholized wines, or creative drinks, innovative and gastronomic drinks, like Granit, which is something a bit new, a category that didn't exist before.

No, not American yet. I've gradually expanded around the region and also in the rest of France, since there are wine merchants and grocery stores that carry a lot of non-alcoholic products. Some specialize in non-alcoholic products. There were two non-alcoholic wine merchants in April 2022; today, we have 35 in France, with five or six plans to open by the summer. It's gaining momentum. But it's mainly the usual wine, spirits, beer, or grocery retailers who are opening their shelves and increasingly offering non-alcoholic products alongside the alcoholic offerings.

THANKS.