WINE WITHOUT BOOZE? WHY?

Take too much fun from the fun bank at Thanksgiving? With more holiday revelry coming up, I have three little words: alcohol-free wine.

The notion of tinkering with perfectly good vino makes true wine lovers blanch, but alcohol-free wine has some advantages over its boozy cousin, including far fewer calories: about 15 to 25 calories for a 4-ounce glass, compared with about 90 for a glass of Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. Alcohol-free wine also should confer some of the health benefits one gets from moderate regular-wine consumption,The same antioxidants found in regular wine also exist in alcohol-free wine if the same grapes were used. These polyphenols -- which fall under the broad umbrella of antioxidants -- include the almighty resveratrol, a compound in red wine that's been receiving recent media attention. Typically, alcohol-free wine is made by extracting the alcohol through a filtering or vacuum process, while leaving the other components intact. By law, the wines must be less than one-half of 1% alcohol. While it does appear that alcohol in moderation decreases the effects of cardiovascular disease, it can also increase your calorie intake; triglycerides, which is another blood lipid; your blood pressure; and possibly your cancer risk. You have to look at the total picture. And the public is buying it. Ariel Vineyards sold 1.2 million bottles of alcohol-free wine last year. Alcohol-free-wine drinkers include pregnant women, designated drivers and people who need to abstain for medical reasons or simply don't like alcohol. Someone with a long history of wine drinking who tries these products won't exactly be seeing stars. It's hard enough to find a really great, rich, soulful Cabernet or Chardonnay with the alcohol, and it's almost an impossible challenge to deliver a really great Cabernet or Chardonnay without alcohol. Alcohol is important to the roundness and richness and sweetness of wine.

But there are a few out there and one of the best I have tasted is Ariel. Ariel has the distinction of producing the only dealcoholized wine to win a gold medal at a formal competition against regular wines. Sure, it was in 1986 at the Los Angeles County Fair, but, still, the wine must have been the Secretariat of the bunch. There is also Fre which makes a pretty tasty sparkling wine.