Bubble trouble: the hunt for a good low-ABV sparkling wine

I don’t know if it’s my cobbled liver or having young children, but these days I wish that “session wine” was more of a thing. By this I mean wine that, like session beer, is easily quaffable over several hours and doesn’t plunge me into inebriation – in other words, wine with a relatively low ABV (less than 11%), a light body and bracing acidity. Why are they so hard to find, especially in the mainstream? The false premise, perhaps, that wine is sipped rather than chugged, or that it is enjoyed only with food? (You need only set foot in a Wetherspoons to learn otherwise.)

So, yes, I’m after a delicious, low-ABV wine, specifically one I can drink at a party without ending up looking like a Heat! magazine cover star in circa 2003. My favourite party drink is something fizzy, so I’m essentially looking for a session sparkling wine.

Supermarket fizz at less than 11% ABV does exist, but it tends to fall short on the delicious side of things. Usually, such wines are framed as low-calorie options and, unsurprisingly, marketed at women. The best of the bunch that I’ve tried is Codorniu’s 8% cava, from which some of the alcohol has been removed. The bottle dubiously promises a “sparkling beverage made with dealcoholised wine”, but rest assured, some chardonnay and xarel-lo were involved in its production, and it does make a decent, crisp aperitif.

Dealcoholisation aside, low-ABV wines occur for one or both of two reasons: because the grapes in question were grown in a cool climate, so contain less sugar to convert into alcohol, and/or because fermentation was stopped early. Of the latter group, moscato d’Asti is a prime example, with a typical ABV at just over 5%; here, the halting of fermentation makes for gentler bubbles and limits how much sugar from the ultra-sweet moscato juice converts to alcohol. In my view it’s too sweet to consider sessionable, unlike northern Spanish txakoli, which, though not sparkling per se, is often naturally spritzy and at the lower end of the ABV spectrum.

I’ve been drinking a fair bit of English pét-nat recently – that is, sparkling wine made with the “ancestral method”, a single fermentation that starts in the tank and is finished in bottle. The ABV of, say, Lost in a Field’s aromatic Frolic 2023 is 9.5% partly because, as is typical with pét-nat, no dosage (sugar) is added, and also thanks to the German (ie, cool-climate) grapes from which it’s made (madeleine angevine and several others that wouldn’t sound out of place in the Von Trapp family). It’s aromatic, peachy and full of orange blossom notes.

Other wines to explore include co-ferments in which two or more things are fermented together, as is the case with Les Funambules Soif! 2003, in which auxerrois grapes, apples and a little water are united for a wine/cider hybrid at just 9% ABV. Or get your hands on a piquette such as Momento Mori’s 6.7% Bag of Bones (£23.80 Sip Wines), a byproduct that’s made with the pomace (solid residues) left over after the grapes are pressed. Water is then added, and the residual sugars and yeasts ferment again, resulting in a low-ABV drink that’s just perfect for a session.

Four low-ABV sparklers

Les Funambules Soif! 2023 £19.60 Parched, 10.5%. A jolly co-ferment that pairs a dream with curries and spiced foods.

Lost in a Field Frolic Pét-Nat 2023 £27.99 Grape Brittania, 9.5%. Oh, to get lost in a field with this and a picnic.