French Bloom's Alcohol-Free Wines Are the New Toast of the Town
Headed by two women, French Bloom is leading the movement of alcohol-free sparkling wine into the fashion and luxury world.
“I call mocktails the fruit salad,” says the model Constance Jablonski. Her friend Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger agrees. “It’s a shame if it’s too sweet and you can’t have three or four.”
In 2021, the two women co-founded French Bloom, a 0.0% alcohol sparkling wine, as a much-needed alternative to water (too boring), soda (too casual), and the dreaded syrupy-yet-overpriced mocktails, for those who are sober or merely conscious of how much alcohol they drink.
Jablonski is French, as is Frerejean-Taittinger’s husband. They were friends, but really bonded in 2019 over both feeling like...whatever the opposite is of “life of the party.” Working in international development for the Michelin Guide, Frerejean-Taittinger learned what it was like to feel excluded when she was pregnant with twins and not able to drink. She never really felt like part of the fun at weddings or on holidays. Jablonski, similarly, knew what it was like to say no to a drink. “As a model, I was traveling nonstop and always jet-lagged. Alcohol was not always compatible with my life. But in my social life and my business life, if you don’t bond with a drink, it’s hard.”
Maggie married into that Taittinger champagne family, so they have had a leg up, but the launch of French Bloom wasn’t entirely smooth. Some producers were extremely dismissive of what they were trying to do. “It’s really male-dominated and tends to be a boys’ club. If you look at the executive leadership of these companies, they are all led by men, ”says Frerejean-Taittinger. She and Jablonski made the conscious decision to seek out female mentorship in the form of Béatrice Cointreau, a champagne and cognac expert and a huge advocate for women in the industry. Fifty percent of the seats on French Bloom’s strategic board are women, and their goal is to nurture female talents in the industry.
Gender diversity is great, but what about the drink itself? The Le Blanc variety tastes of apple and citrus notes but is dry like the best sparkling wines, and it has a very fine effervescence, so the bubbles don’t feel the same as drinking a Diet Coke or a Topo Chico. It feels like drinking a celebratory aperitif without trying to replicate champagne note for note. It’s not trying to be champagne; French Bloom is proudly its own thing.
French Bloom can be found at places well known for wild nights as much as at places where the healthiest of the healthy flock (Erewhon, anyone?).
Frerejean-Taittinger compares it all to the nonalcoholic beer industry. “Ten years ago, it was far from drinkable, and now it’s good. There were many technical innovations that went into that.” Jablonski recalls her uncle, who is sober, who would come around, and they’d pour a sad alcohol-free beer for him that they kept hidden in the kitchen.
It took the co-founders no less than four years and more than 70 iterations to land on the right formula: Start with a French Chardonnay, manually remove the alcohol to get it to 0.0%, and then add just the right amount of things like lemon for the acidity that gets lost in the dealcoholization process. They wanted it to be organic and sulphite-free, like their favorite natural wines, vegan, low calorie, no added sugars, and completely alcohol-free, so it was safe for pregnancy.
When they launched French Bloom, they assumed they would be selling primarily to American women dipping their toes into the alcohol-free and sober-curious movement, or maybe to markets with a high demand for alcohol-free drinks for religious reasons.
And while 70 percent of people who buy French Bloom are women, the founders were surprised that, two years in, they’ve made a huge splash in Paris (the French market is their fastest-growing), which is the exact opposite of what they expected. They launched at the Grande Épicerie at LeBon Marché in Paris, where they sold 10,000 bottles in their first three months.
So now French Bloom can be found at places well known for wild nights–The Carlyle and The Beverly Hills Hotel, The Ritz-Paris, Annabel’s London–as much as at places where the healthiest of the healthy flock (Erewhon, anyone?). That mix is intentional and indicative of a larger industry trend of fun, well-designed, upscale alcohol alternatives such as Ghia, De Soi, or Figlia.
“It’s interesting because Maggie and I drink wine,” says Jablonski. “We are sober-curious but not completely sober. Most of our clientele are sober-curious as well–their social lives are integrated into business, and they can’t afford to feel bad the next morning. For my part, I will drink French Bloom the same night I drink alcohol. It’s just a good way to pace yourself.”
In addition to Le Blanc they have Le Rosé, and on the horizon is a new product, a prestige cuvée that will be the first alcohol-free vintage.
But even if French Bloom and the alcohol-free industry has come a long way, it’s not omnipresent. “The best way to get it on the menus is to ask for it. Beverage directors and sommeliers say they don’t need it. But how do diners know to ask for it if they don’t know it exists?” Frerejean-Taittinger asks. “We have a lot of luxury and fashion brands that are starting to offer it for press and influencer events. Inclusion should include clients who want to drink or not.”
Jablonski says to just BYOFB–Bring Your Own French Bloom. “If all else fails,” she says with a laugh, “Bring it to a dinner party. Pay the corkage; it’s worth it.”
