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

Amanda Thomson revisited her move from the BBC to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, the launch of Skinny Champagne and the eventual creation of Noughty in 2019. Her central principle was that an alcohol-free wine should be good wine in its own right, not merely good within the alcohol-free category.

At launch, placing a premium non-alcoholic wine on Michelin-starred restaurant lists seemed highly ambitious. Noughty pursued that goal through close attention to grape quality, origin, winemaking and taste, eventually securing placements in international restaurants, hotels and retail outlets. Thomson also argued that the category remains at an early stage and welcomed more serious producers, winemakers and high-quality wines, believing stronger competition would benefit alcohol-free wine as a whole.