What to drink if you (or your friends) are not drinking at Christmas

It’s hard to get away from the fact that Christmas - in fact pretty well the whole of December - is a mega-boozy period hence the reason so many people go in for Dry January

But supposing you don’t normally drink at all? Or you’re trying not to drink every day over the holiday? What do you substitute for the normal Christmas bottles?.

You are of course OK if you drink beer. There are many good alcohol-free beers nowadays although I say this as an occasional rather than a regular beer drinker. But what about champagne, wine, mulled wine and other Christmassy drinks? Are there satisfactory substitutes for those?

The good news is the technology behind these drinks - is constantly improving. Which sounds rather sinister but the fact is that it’s tricky to replicate the job that alcohol does both in terms of carrying flavour and ensuring the stability of a drink. Which is why AF drinks tend to be surprisingly expensive.

Wine in particular is still a challenge - you’re generally better to find something completely different - but the quality is constantly improving as I found when I dropped into the mindful drinking organisation Club Soda’s bar and tasting room in Covent Garden last week.

Here are my top picks and some (hopefully) easier-to-source alternatives if you’re nowhere near London or too late for an online delivery although this advice applies for other occasions too.

Alternatives to champagne and sparkling wine

As with other wine substitutes sparkling wine doesn’t quite live up to the real thing though if you’re not drinking at all you might be grateful for something that tastes reasonably like it. (Although bear in mind that’s not always the case. People who have had a drink problem in the past don’t necessarily want a substitute that reminds them of alcohol)

I’ve tasted a couple that are acceptable - Lyre’s Prosecco-like Classico Grande which is on offer at £7 at Ocado and Vilarnau’s 0% Cava which is available in quite a lot of indy wine merchants but which you can also buy from Amazon but neither totally rocks my boat.

Far more interesting is Jorg Geiger’s Bratbirne - a sumptuously rich, complex alternative to perry but aged for 3 years which explains the £30 price tag (at Club Soda and online at Wise Bartender) and tastes deliciously like baked apples as well as spiced pears

Easier to get hold of - and more affordable - is sparkling tea, a category pioneered by the Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company. I like Royal Flush which is on offer at £7.50 at Waitrose currently

Other aperitifs

My usual go-to, Botivo which you can buy from several stockists, including Majestic, is not especially Christmassy and I find gin and tonic a bit chilly at this time of year. If you don’t my usual alcohol-free ‘gin’ is Sipsmith’s Freeglider which is £17 also at Majestic and £20 currently at Waitrose. 

Otherwise a couple of AF aperitifs in a suitably festive red are Martini’s Vibrante which you can find on offer in Waitrose and at full price at Tesco and - rather harder to track down - High Point’s Ruby Aperitif which is normally stocked by Master of Malt. I also like Pentire’s blood orange-based Coastal Spritz - also at Waitrose as well as direct from their website. (Better in the bottle than in cans)

White ‘wine’

White wine is slightly easier to replicate than red although does have (for me) a tendency to be too sweet. Zesty whites like de-alcoholised sauvignon blanc tend to be the most successful although I was impressed by the Moderato Cuvée Revolutionnaire white which is made from colombard £13 from Club Soda.

If you’re into natural wine you’ll probably prefer kombucha which generally comes flavoured these days. Lemon and Ginger will probably work best with the kind of food with which you might normally drink white wine. I like Momo’s (available at Ocado) but most health food shops should have one.

Red ‘wine’

The best option for me up to now has been Thompson & Scott’s Noughty though as you can see from the 3 star rating on the Waitrose site, where it’s stocked for £9.99 it’s not totally convincing. However I tasted 2 at Club Soda: Eisberg’s Selection Pinot Noir which is a really reasonable £8, less still at Majestic if you buy it on a mix six deal. Even better, though twice as expensive is Jörg Geiger’s richly fruited 37° Pinot Noir at £17 at Club Soda which would be a good bottle to put on the Christmas - or New Year’s Eve table.

In terms of what you can get your hands on at the last minute, elderberry juice, which you should be able to find in a health food shop, is a decent substitute for red wine (Biona does a good one)

Mulled ‘wine’

One of the best festive AF drinks. Several producers make them including Belvoir whose mulled winter punch you can find at Sainsbury’s and Rochester’s mulled berry punch which is stocked by Holland & Barrett

Port and sherry

No real equivalent. Make a high strength mulled wine out of a cordial

A cream ‘liqueur’

Believe it or not you can find one! Twisst Caramel Cream which you can also buy from Club Soda and online from several AF drinks suppliers including the alcohol-free company. (Lay in a supply for dry January!)

If you want a suggestion as to what bottle to take your host as a gift this Christmas check out my Substack Eat This, Drink That.

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