Monté and I

MODSUB119

Wotcha!

Well Dry January flew by didn’t it. How many of you got through the whole month. I’ll raise my hand first. Favorite drink of the month, outside of the ones I’ve written about here?

I’d have to say Roots & Flowers, one of the Dry January specials at Tough Luck in NE Portland. It featured The Pathfinder, pear, ginger, lime and ginger beer served on the rocks. It was every bit as good as it sounds.

What was your favorite drink of the month? Hit reply and I’ll share it with the ModSub readers next week.

Myles

P.S. Check out some Noughty discounts below 👇

In this week’s edition:

NAN
New NA Drink News

WINE
Noughty AF - Monté

GBNF
Wilderton Says Farewell (for now)

Read time: 4 minutes 23 seconds

From this week’s sponsor: The Zero Proof

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One favorite is the french sparking rose, Beau Viva.

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Thank you for supporting our sponsors who in turn support this newsletter.

• FUNCTIONAL COCKTAIL:  A new canned cocktail from Nowadays who have debuted a limited run low dose Black Cherry. Also available in 750ml spirit form. (Link)

• FUNCTIONAL SPIRITS: One of my favorite non-alc spirit makers, Monday, are soon to be adding a hemp-derived THC Gin. (Link)

• BEER: Cold Pressed Lime and Nectarine Juniper are two new flavors being introduced to expand Heineken 0.0’s offerings. (Link)

• FUNCTIONAL BEER: On the other side of the pond, Belgian Balance are launching Limitless Beers with an IPA, a New England IPA and a ginger beer some time in the coming months. (Link)

WINE

ModSub’s thoughts: “The old order changeth, yielding place to the new." 

I feel like every generation has that film they can point to as their generation’s film. For Gen Xers like me, I think most folks growing up in England in the ’80s would, without hesitation, point to Withnail and I.

The film follows two unemployed actors stuck in a grim London flat in the late ’60s, in need of some sort of escape to re-energize their flagging careers. They persuade Withnail’s uncle to let them use his Lake District cottage in the country, and what follows are their hapless attempts to survive a holiday they’ve come on “by mistake.” It’s a cult classic, packed with one-liners you’ll still hear quoted today—some 40 years after the film’s release.

So what’s all this got to do with Noughty AF’s Monté?

That uncle of Withnail’s was played by the late Richard Griffiths, and his character’s name was Monty—and he loved a great wine. Add to that, one scene sees Richard E. Grant’s character entering a quaint English tearoom like a drunk bull in a china shop, demanding of the poor owner, “The finest wines known to humanity. We want them here. And we want them now!”

I doubt very much the team at Noughty had the film in mind when naming the wine, but it was the first thing I thought of when I heard about this pre-Christmas release.

Monté, the non-alcoholic wine, is a rich, blackberry-forward red, made with 100% Syrah grapes from several vineyards around Darling, a region just north of Cape Town in South Africa. The grapes benefit from Atlantic Ocean weather patterns helping safeguard acidity while enhancing flavor complexity. Blackberry notes give way to hints of pepper and clove, before dark plums and raspberries carry you through to the finish. It’s a splendid wine that perfectly complemented the Beef Wellington I made on Christmas Day.

In an alternate universe, I’d wager Uncle Monty, Withnail and XX would have loved Noughty’s Monté. I’m not sure that version of the film would have resulted in the same hilarious—yet poignant—cult classic it became though. I guess we’ll never know.

How Noughty describes Monté: Noughty Monté Non-Alcoholic Red Wine is an elegantly produced and  elevated Syrah wine that has been expertly dealcoholised down to less than 0.5% ABV and retains the rich flavour of this beautifully crafted bottle.

GET A 10% DISCOUNT on previous Noughty wines reviewed in the ModSub:

Noughty Sparkling Chardonnay: Read here • Save 10% by purchasing here

Noughty Rouge: Read here • Save 10% by purchasing here

A quick heads-up: the above two purchase links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission—thank you for supporting my work at no extra cost to you.

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Wilderton Says Farewell (for now)

ModSub’s thoughts: A week or so back, Wilderton Aperitivo Company announced they had stopped production of their two aperitivos and were entering an indefinite hiatus. It’s unclear exactly what caused the Hood River–based beverage company to shut up shop, but the closure last year of Diageo’s Distill Ventures—a program that funded smaller brands and of which Wilderton was a part—may have been a contributing factor.

Wilderton was formed by Brad Whiting and Seth O’Malley in 2019 with the launch of their two spirits, Earthen and Lustre. Both were unlike anything else on the market and arguably ahead of their time, offering a complexity of flavor that was wonderfully hard to categorize.

In 2023, following the success of their third offering, Bittersweet Aperitivo, they pivoted to focus on a new aperitivo line, adding the hugely popular Citrus. Last year, a limited-run Coffee Amaro offered an exquisite taste of things to come, and a new RTD, Crystal Vision—drawn from the success of Citrus—had been waiting in the wings for a launch this year.

Amid all the hype that non-alcoholic drinks are here to stay, Wilderton’s closure is a stark reminder that many of these beverage companies are still small businesses, facing the same challenges as any other sector.

In my opinion—and I know I’m not alone—Wilderton was one of the best non-alcoholic spirits on the market. It sat right at the top of the list for me, and this is sad news for the adult non-alcoholic industry and for the state of Oregon, not to mention Brad, Seth and everyone who worked alongside them.

Some of my favorite bands have gone on an “indefinite hiatus” only to later reform and absolutely crush it. So I’ll remain patient and hopeful that we see Wilderton return in one form or another down the line. In the meantime, we all need to support these small businesses.

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