Rising the Bar for Non-Alcoholic Wine with The Buyer's Richard Siddle

I’ve never been particularly interested in making an alcohol-free wine that is simply “good for alcohol-free”.  It has to be good wine. Full stop.

That’s really the thread running through a lovely new profile of me and Noughty by Richard Siddle in The Buyer.

Richard goes right back to my beginnings in wine – leaving the BBC, studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, launching Skinny Champagne and, eventually, creating Noughty in 2019.

At the time, the idea of a premium alcohol-free wine that could earn its place on a Michelin-starred restaurant’s wine list was still considered pretty outlandish. But that was always the ambition.

We’ve battled for every bottle sold and every listing won. And along the way we’ve remained pretty obsessive about the same things: the quality of the grapes, where they come from, how the wine is made and, ultimately, how it tastes.

Today, Noughty is poured in some extraordinary restaurants and hotels around the world as well as being available through major retailers. I’m incredibly proud of that – and of the small, brilliant team behind it.

But what I particularly enjoyed talking to Richard about was where alcohol-free wine goes next.

This category is only getting started. I want more great producers to come into it, more winemakers to take it seriously and more brilliant wines to emerge.

As I told Richard: “We want other players to raise the game with us.”

Because ultimately, the better the wine gets, the better it is for all of us.

Read Richard Siddle’s full interview in The Buyer.