What role does wine actually play in a meal, since the point of drinking
wine with good food has nothing to do with its alcohol content? And what
can wine be replaced with, for the non alcohol drinker?
In most cases, the role of wine is that of an essentially savory sauce in
highly liquid form that is pleasant to drink and offers complex taste
sensations that complement the meal served. As soon as you start thinking
about beverages that way, your own ideas and taste combinations may begin
coming to mind. Here are a few suggestions you can start with.
Unfiltered pomegranate juice, the imported Persian type
—there is a depth
and complexity in this stuff that actually comes close to wine. There are
several American brands that are actually more expensive, but it's the
thick, unrefined nectar that throws cloudy sediment on the bottom that you
want. Local organic production will probably suffice. Decant it as you
would a wine, and serve appropriately.
Balsamic vinegar spritzers
—Use a few drops of decent (or even
extravagant) quality balsamic vinegar in a wineglass full of sparking
water. You can also use champagne vinegar or flavored vinegars, depending
on what kind of food you are accompanying. A balsamic vinegar spritzer
with a curl of fresh mango on the rim to accompany a simple foie gras
appetizer plate is a wonderful taste match. Hint: it doesn't take much
vinegar to flavor the sparkling water, and you can adjust your taste
proportions to better match the dish you are serving.
Digestif herbal infusions
—A strong herbal infusion as a concentrated tea
can also be mixed with sparkling water, either with or without a drop or
two of flavored vinegar. A few drops of slightly sweetened lavender
infusion can add a haunting herbal-floral note to the drink, if you can
get food grade lavender from your supplier. You can also go whole hog and
make a strong, unsweetened tea with the Herbs du Provence mixture,
garnishing with fresh basil and balsamic vinegar. Chamomile is also
lovely, and there are some floral essences (check the Chinese markets for
dried chrysanthemum) that work beautifully in spritzers. Rosemary essence
is a fine complement for lamb. Mix and match and find your own recipes.
Verjus cocktail
—The intensely sour, fruity juice of unripe grapes, a precious
condiment for sauces in Perigord, can be combined with other elements in
a drink to tame it down to a level that can be sipped and savored.
Verjus is valued as a salad dressing and sauce component because it
effectively replaces vinegar with its intense flavor and sprightly
sourness, but it does not clash with wine as vinegar does. Cut verjus
half and half with sparkling water, and add a few drops of evaporated
red or white wine syrup for a sophisticated cocktail that has much of
the flavor of wine and none of the alcohol. I prefer this combination
to any commercally marketed dealcoholized wine.
Persimmon "beer"
—Crush ripe, crisply firm Fuyu persimmons and strain them for their
juice. Add verjus and a few drops of strong tea made with hops. Adjust
proportions to taste. This produces a wonderfully smooth and balanced
beverage with a faint, refreshing sourness and just enough of a bitter
edge to be appetizing.
Olive essence cocktail
—Extract the clear juice from very ripe tomatoes
through a fine strainer, and make a light gelatin or aspic - use
unflavored gelatin, and follow the directions on the package. Reserve the
tomato pulp for other uses, or discared it. Half fill a martini glass
with the clear aspic cubes (if you set it hard enough to cut shapes out
of) or tiny spoonfuls of the clear gelatin, and sprinkle with a well
flavored vinegar - a vinegar in which you have been marinating olives and
tarragon works beautifully. Fill the glass with a pour of rich,
concentrated vegetable juice (tomato works fine, or you can blend tomato
with some green vegetables or herbs for flavor variation) and add a good
quality olive. A basil or other fresh herb garnish works well.
Ocean cocktail
—If your clientele is daring enough, try this one. Make
the tomato water aspic, but do it with agar agar, a type of seaweed
gelatin available in specialty Japanese stores. Reserve some of the clear
tomato water ungelled. Sprinkle with a drop of soy sauce, a drop of
balsamic vinegar and a drop of rice vinegar. Make your own "ocean water"
to taste by dissolving some good quality sea salt (Fleur du Sel is good);
in the reserved tomato water. The result should be slightly briny and
minerally with a hint of savor, but not overpoweringly salty. Add enough
to float the garnish, tender strands of various kinds of edible seaweed.
There are some really striking kinds of edible seaweeds available in both
fresh and dehydrated form, including some bright red and white ones, so
you could have a really visually appealing liquid appetizer.
Vinegar apertifs
—If you make your own good quality vinegars, or have
some available, you can offer these in tiny glasses as an apertif. Should
you have a wealthy nonalcoholic clientele who want to spend as much on
their fine beverages as their wine drinking companions, you can serve the
ultimate indulgence of a snifter of seriously well aged balsamic vinegar.
Weight for weight, this decadently delicious stuff competes with the
finest of wines both for flavor complexity and price.
Wine essence syrup
—Cover a dehydrator tray with about 1/4" of red wine,
and allow the wine to mostly (but not completely) evaporate, leaving you a
thick syrup that is intensely flavorful and not alcoholic - the alcohol is
one of the first things that will evaporate. Bottle this and use this
"extracted wine essence" drop by drop to enhance some of these
nonalcoholic beverages.
A note on customer perception—you certainly can garnish with parsley or
basil oil if you like, or a few drops of high quality olive oil. Carrot
oil is something I also use with success on the seafood cocktail. As soon
as you add oil or solid things (other than olives) to the drink, the
customers immediately think of it as a food appetizer rather than a
beverage. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, just something to keep in
mind when planning the menu.
If you want to go for the appetizer cocktail perception and you think you
can sell it to your clientele, you can go the whole hog and float other
things on the aspic-savory liquid combination as well, such as seafood,
croutons, tiny decorative vegetable or fruit balls, etc.
If you have a Japanese kaiseki clientele (preferably in Japan; I'm not
sure this would fly anywhere else), you could do the ultimate deed and
float an odori (live; literally "dancing") shrimp in the Ocean cocktail.
Now that would be daring.
"Liqueurs were not lacking; but the coffee especially deserves mention.
It was as clear as crystal, aromatic and wonderfully hot; but, above all,
it was not handed around in those wretched vessels called cups on the
left banks of the Seine, but in beautiful and capacious bowls, into which
the thick lips of the reverend fathers plunged, engulfing the refreshing
beverage with a noise that would have done honor to sperm-whales before a
storm."
Jean Antheleme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste
