Lussory Premium, Princess Alternativa, So Jennie Paris Sparkling Wine Sampler (3 × 750 mL)

Princess began in 2012 in Lavis, a town in the Trentino valley north of Verona, when Michele Tait wrote up a study on lowering the alcohol in the wines then on the market. He came to the question after years in the cellar and the vineyard rather than from outside the trade, and what he was answering was a demand the shelf was not meeting.

The first bottles still carried a little alcohol, enough to sit under the limit that lets a drink be called analcolica in Italy. The line that carries the name arrived the year after, and it is made the longer way round: the wine is vinified in full and the alcohol drawn out afterwards, without chemical treatment. Princess is direct about what that leaves, and about what it is not, which is grape juice or must.

The name is the Italian word for alternative, and it was chosen to say plainly what the range was for. It runs through still whites, rosés and reds, a set of sparkling Bollicine from dry through extra dry to sweet, and an aperitivo alongside them. All of it is made in Lavis.

In 2010, Jennie Kergoat-Ruelland was planning a royal wedding in Abu Dhabi. The event was as lavish as any she had run, and when the moment came to raise a glass the guests who did not drink were toasting with fruit juice. She set out to make something that belonged on the same table.

So Jennie Paris is made in France from selected grape musts, lightly carbonated and never fermented — 0.0% alcohol, and Halal certified. The butterfly on the bottle is screen-printed in 21-carat gold, which is the part people remember. It is poured at the Four Seasons George V, at Harrods, and in Qatar Airways First and Business class.

Lussory is made in Spain, and the back label carries Dismark Products of Santiago de Compostela — the far northwest, where the Atlantic weather comes in. The fruit is from somewhere else entirely. It comes off La Mancha, the wide, high plateau south of Madrid, and both ranges are built from it: Airen and Tempranillo, Merlot and Chardonnay, all grown a long way from the corner of Spain the brand comes from.

The wine is made conventionally and matured for twelve months before anything is removed. The alcohol then comes off by vacuum distillation, under reduced pressure and at temperatures low enough that the aromatics are not driven off with it. Taking it out at the end rather than never letting it in is what leaves the reds their grip and the whites their fruit.

Two ranges sit under the name. The Premium bottles run through Merlot, Tempranillo, Airen and Chardonnay to a Rosé, a sparkling Brut, and the 24K Gold. The Organic range is the smaller of the two: a Merlot, a Chardonnay and a Brut of its own.