A Berlin wine lab that buys finished wine from family growers across Europe and takes the alcohol out afterward.
Kolonne Null started in Berlin in 2018, and the shape of the company is the interesting part. It does not own vineyards. It buys finished wine from family growers across Europe — Bordeaux, Provence, La Mancha, the Rheingau — and works on it in a laboratory of its own in the city.
That arrangement means the conversation with a grower starts before the harvest rather than after it. The house talks through what it wants from a parcel while the fruit is still on the vine, which is a different relationship from buying a tank and seeing what turns up. Its lab works alongside partner winemakers and research institutions, and the range has widened steadily as that work has gone on.
The next step is land. Kolonne Null has said it intends to build its own production site and plant a vineyard in the Havelland, west of Berlin, with visiting winemakers working alongside its own. For a company that has spent seven years working on other people's wine, that would be the first it makes from the beginning.
- Producer
- Kolonne Null
- Based in
- Berlin, Germany
- Founded
- 2018
- Sizes
- 1500 mL, 750 mL, 375 mL and 200 mL
- Site
- kolonnenull.com
Kolonne Null works like a fine wine house that happens to take the alcohol out. Founded in Berlin in 2018, it sources finished wines from partner wineries across Europe — Riesling and sparkling from Germany, rosé from Provence, reds from Spain and Bordeaux — then tastes, blends and selects them in its own Berlin workshop before dealcoholizing them, with no artificial aromas or colorings. Each bottle keeps the character of its grape and its region, and that range is the pleasure of it: a crisp Riesling for the table, a dry rosé for the afternoon, a numbered Cuvée for the celebration. Start with Cuvée Rouge #3, the red we pour to show what alcohol-free wine can do at dinner.
