Review: Joyus Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Wine and Cabernet Sauvignon
Joyus — or rather, Jøyus — is a new entrant into the NA wine category, producing a spray of wines made by dealcoholizing real wine, then blending in water and grape juice to plump things back up. We received two expressions from the company, a sparkling white wine and a cabernet sauvignon.
Joyus Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Wine – This is a white wine made from undetermined dealcoholized wine plus added white grape juice. Quite fizzy with ample carbonation, this offers a bright and refreshing note of green apple paired with ample sweetness, enhanced with a light tropical note of pineapple and just a touch of unripe pear. It’d be easy to dismiss this as merely sparkling grape juice, but there’s just enough lightly sour bite present to keep it grounded in the realm of wine, however mild things tend to be. Straightforward, but definitely crushable whether it’s January or not. B+ / $27
Joyus Non-Alcoholic Cabernet Sauvignon – Made the same way: dealcoholized wine plus grape juice added back in. NA red wines tend to be my least favorite in the category, and to be sure you won’t fool anyone with this sweet, jammy experience. The added grape juice is immediately noticeable, and as with the sparkling expression there’s just a hint of unripe sourness to suggest actual wine was involved in some aspect of this product’s production, with just a touch of tannic grip clinging to the finish. There’s really not enough of it to go around, unfortunately. The brightly sweet notes of strawberries and raspberries only vaguely connote red wine, much less cabernet. B- / $29
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