Meeting a Saint

Plus the Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Wine that Kept Me Awake Past Midnight

MODSUB#67

Wotcha!

Happy New Year!

Thanks to all you who responded to my January 1 email by downloading the new guide I’ve ,published to help folks at the very beginning of they NA drinks journey.

For anyone who missed it, there is more information on Substitute Without Sacrifice - A Beginner’s Guide to the Best Non-Alcoholic Drinks below.

I look forward to hearing your feedback!

Cheers,

Myles

In this week’s edition:

NAN
New NA Drink News

SPIRIT
Little Saints - St. Juniper

WINE
Prima Pavé - Grand Cuvée

Read time: 6 minutes 56 seconds

A new guide from The Modern Substitute

What’s in it and how does it help people?

  • 30-page ebook

  • Tips on the three mental hurdles to overcome - set yourself up for success

  • Where to find NA drinks - short answer: lots of places

  • 50+ beverage companies providing non-alc beers, wines, spirits and ready-to-drink cocktails - including links to explore, purchase and find

  • Three additional resources for finding bars, restaurants, breweries and bottle shops that sell or serve NA drinks when out on the town or travelling

Where can I get the guide?

You can download the guide here.

It is a free resource, but if you would like to support this endeavor, there is a “pay-what-you-can” feature to set the price you'd like to contribute—your support is truly appreciated.

What drinks are included?

This guide helps beginners by highlighting beverage companies rather than individual drinks, allowing readers to explore each company's full range. It features links to 10 NA beer breweries, 10 NA wine producers, and five wine alternative brands. Spirits are split into traditional (gin, whisky, tequila) and non-traditional options, with my top five traditional picks included. Lastly, the guide showcases 10 RTD cocktail brands offering 30+ unique canned drinks.

It was challenging to condense this guide, as it could have easily expanded to 120 pages with 200 brands. Instead, I focused on simplicity to help beginners get started. This list isn’t exhaustive—selections were based on best distribution channels as I wanted to make this as easy as possible for readers to access products. Future guides will dive deeper into each category.

NAN
New NA Drink News

NORTH AMERICA

• COCKTAIL: I’ve tried 50 ways to express how excited I am about this new release but nothing seems to be doing it the justice it deserves: The Pathfinder has an RTD Negroni coming out this month. Is that a choir of angels I hear in the distance? (Link)

• CIDER: Here’s one for the cider-drinkers: Oregon’s Bauman’s Cider launched two new ciders just before Christmas. The Apfelschorle and Loganberry Apfelschorle are a PNW take on a traditional German beverage. (Link)

• WINE: There’s a limited edition non-alcoholic wine in a box release from Proxies. Everyday White is out now. Oh and there’s a lovely tweak to their brand  logo too. (Link)

• BEER: I’m not going to lie, I do love a Kölsch. So I’m excited to get my hands on the new one from San Diego’s RationAle Brewing. (Link)

WORLDWIDE

• SPIRITS: News from Belgium of three debut spirits from Nudo, who launched Ginepro, Ginepro Rosa and Spritz at the beginning of December. (Link)

SPIRIT

Origin: Miami, FL
Calories: 5
Sugar: 0g

Serving: 750 ml
ABV: 0%
Price: $49.99 (1)

ModSub: If you’re a fan of the TV show Shark Tank, you may have seen Megan Klein of Little Saints kick off season 16 by pitching to the Sharks. I’d wager that at least half of the non-alcoholic industry tuned in that evening—not only to see how she would fare but also to witness how a non-alcoholic beverage brand would be received by the wealthy investors. Whether Megan knew it or not, she wasn’t just representing her brand, but to a large degree — the entire industry, on the show.

Here comes the spoiler alert. She knocked her presentation out of the park, got a couple of offers from the sharks, knew the value of her brand and turned them down. While the investors sitting in the studio might disagree with me, it felt like Sharks: 0, Little Saints: 1. A win for the NA industry!

Just days after the episode aired, Megan Klein announced that, despite turning the Sharks down, she had secured investment from elsewhere and her plans for expansion were moving forward. Hot on the heels of that announcement was the launch of St. Juniper, the second standalone spirit from the mushroom-based beverage company.

Little Saints’ spirit debut, St. Ember, was designed as a tequila alternative. St. Juniper, unsurprisingly, is a nod to gin. All of Little Saints’ creations—whether these two spirits or their line of ready-to-drink (RTD) options, including a Paloma, Spritz, and Mule—offer a fresh take on classics, reimagined through the lens of mushrooms and adaptogens. It’s both a nod to the past and a reflection of how these innovations are blossoming.

Neat: One thing you’ll notice straight away: I had barely gotten the cork halfway out of the bottle when a lovely hit of juniper filled the air around me. Unlike many other non-alcoholic gins I’ve tasted, this one works perfectly well neat. The juniper dominates upfront, with cucumber elbowing its way in mid-palate. It’s the back end, though, where the drink truly takes off: tart citrus from the yuzu, a herbaceous woodiness from the angelica root, and a sweet, peppery undertone from the cardamom.

St. Juniper and Tonic: I was not expecting to write this before I opened the bottle, but here we are: this is the closest thing I’ve come to a true gin and tonic since the "before times.”* The depth of flavor … wow. I’ll just leave it there.

Southside: It’s a rare day that I get a new bottle of spirits and don’t feel inspired to adapt whatever I have on hand to one of the recipes from the collection on the All The Bitter website. So, I tried their Southside recipe, which calls for fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, mint leaves, orange bitters and, of course, gin. The lemon reins in the juniper flavor in this mix—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Juniper needs to dominate in the G&T, but here it’s part of a full cast. Heavenly.

Given Little Saints’ other products, I expected to like St. Juniper. I hadn’t counted on being completely blown away by it.

* I have made this proclamation once before. Tough to choose between them. So I’m not going to!

How does Little Saints describe their St. Juniper: Herbaceous juniper meets a woodsy, citrusy blend of cucumber, birch and yuzu for an experience that’s equal parts bright and complex. Powered by organic lion’s mane mushroom and damiana, St. Juniper was formulated to lighten minds and open hearts.

It's festive faire and twinkling eyes, a gin of yore reinvented for unordinary evenings. From martinis to gimlets, St. Juniper can stand alone or be mixed as an alternative to gin in cocktail classics.

First time reading The Modern Substitute?

Since August, 2023 we’ve recommended over 180 different adult non-alcoholic drinks. We’ve also reported on 320+ new drink launches across beer, wine, spirits and cocktails.

That’s 500 NA drinks.

Why not subscribe? You don’t want to miss the next 500. Go on.

WINE

Origin: Italy
Calories: 12
Sugar: 2.5g

Size: 750 ml
ABV: 0%
Price: $35.00 (1)

ModSub: New Year’s Eve was unusually quiet this year. Not a bad thing per se, but a far cry from the parties Mrs. ModSub and I have attended—or hosted—in the past. An early dinner with friends was followed by a nagging desire to hit the hay at about 7:30 p.m., something our 16-year-old found utterly contemptible. Even bargaining for a 9:00 p.m. “it’s-midnight-in-New-York” trade-off was waved away as she reminded me that her 87-year-old grandfather had stayed awake to see the fireworks go off in London.

Little did she know, I had a trick up my sleeve for staying awake this year—one that didn’t involve matchsticks. A bottle of Prima Pavé Grand Cuvée was waiting for me in the fridge.

Prima Pavé was born out of a pregnancy. Many founder stories revolve around the need to curb excessive drinking or find a healthier path. Others stem from serious illnesses or tragic family histories. For Dejou Marano, however, it was simply the desire to toast the birth of a child and the lack of options on the market that matched the quality such a moment deserved.

As 2021 came to a close, Dejou and her husband, Marco, launched Prima Pavé, initially offering a Blanc de Blancs, a Brut Rosé and a Rosé Dolce. Their backgrounds in wine and hospitality—both are Certified Specialists of Wine (CSW)—gave them the opportunity to learn from winemakers across the industry and perfect what Prima Pavé would eventually become.

In the four years since, their wines have become Italy’s most awarded non-alcoholic wines. They’re featured in high-end restaurants like Eleven Madison Park, Four Seasons hotels, and Italian food mecca Eataly. Prima Pavé was also the first non-alcoholic wine picked up by Williams Sonoma.

This second-edition Grand Cuvée is a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio, sourced from Friuli in Northern Italy, and boy, is it fabulous. The wine boasts a crisp, bright acidity and a gentle tartness that balances the fruit—predominantly pear, with subtle notes of apricot and orange. The finish is delightfully dry and earthy.

As we head into the new year, keep this one in your back pocket for any and all celebratory events. Honestly, if every New Year’s Eve were accompanied by a bottle of Prima Pavé Grand Cuvée, you might just find me more inclined to stay up past midnight.

How does Prima Pavé describe Grand Cuvée - 2nd Edition: Bright and creamy on the palate with fine persistent bubbles, dry finish. Blend of Chardonnay & Pinot Grigio. Orange blossom, dried apricot, baked pear, toasted hazelnut.

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