Dealcoholized Wine

Since I have a little experience now, I thought I'd write a review to help my memory and for posterity. First off: dealcoholized wine is real live wine that they take the alcohol out of, and then add water and/or grape juice back into.

I really miss having a glass of wine during pregnancy, which has driven me to the rather un-frugal position of paying real money for not-real wine. Fre costs about 7 dollars a bottle (for the record, that's twice the price of TJ's two-buck chuck, which Francisco's still drinking left-over from our wedding, and which tastes better than Fre). It's basically undrinkable in its red form. (It says on the label that it's 20-30 percent juice.) I mean, it is called "Red Blend," which maybe should have made me suspicious from the start.

Fre in the pink form is drinkable (it is similarly about 20-30 percent juice). It doesn't taste like wine, exactly, but rather a wine/grape juice mix that isn't that bad. But it's nothing to write home about, either, especially for the price.

Pink Ariel is what Mrs. Sayers mailed me some time ago. It's the best of the three de-alcoholized wines I've had by far (it's about 5 percent juice). It doesn't exactly taste like wine, but it's pretty darn close. The problem is, while it does seem to be sold in stores in some places, it isn't clear to me that it's sold in stores in the Philadelphia area, so you have to pay for shipping. But it is worth that.