Thirsty: More Than Zero

When Mark Landsman, along with business partner Kat Bangs, took over the shoe-box space of what was once the late, great Shindig bar in Woodstock last year, Landsman, with the help of his friend, artist/craftsman Scott Chasse, renovated the space in just 19 days and reopened it as Small Talk, a cozy, rustic, open-late boîte—with a pop-up gallery upstairs hosted by Chasse—that fosters conversation and cocktails, proffered with a side of crispy chicken pot pie and a hearty charcuterie board.

Given that Landsman also co-owns Elevated Wine & Spirits in Hunter (only took him and Chasse four days to build out this one), he leaned heavily on his knowledge of customer buying patterns and preferences thanks to the many tastings he’s hosted there. Recommended at Elevated is the Noughty Dealcoholized Sparkling Chardonnay, and what he doesn’t sell at Elevated, he’s learning to sell at Small Talk: Non-alcoholic (a.k.a. NA) cocktails, wines and beers.

He pours a good amount of Kimmunity Kombucha, AL’s Classic and St. Agrestis Phony Negronis—the latter two made downstate—as well as ever-evolving riffs on long drinks made with house-made syrups and infusions. If you’re looking for something to make at home, Landsman recommends using local tinctures from Mighty Moon Medicine, created with ingredients foraged here in the Catskill forests, and tangy ginger syrups from ImmuneSchein Ginger Elixirs, crafted in Saugerties. “The trend seems to be more toward bitter things, not syrupy, so I’m calling these tincture-y,” says Landsman.

His mention of bitter tracks, as the burgeoning—and booming!—non-alcohol beverage movement evolves (and distances itself) from the first wave of treacly, not-quite-naturally-flavored mocktails toward more sophisticated versions of actual cocktails. As Billy Paretti, CEO of CleanCo sums it up, “We’re all natural, 15 calories per shot max, no added sugar—it’s a like-for-like mixed drink, like our margarita: side by side, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. It’s so delicious, you couldn’t knock it.” 

CleanCo is the creation of Spencer George Matthews, a British television personality, entrepreneur and host of the podcast Big Fish With Spencer Matthews, who had a reputation as a party boy until he met and married fellow TV personality Vogue Williams, who helped him change his lifestyle. As Paretti tells the story, Matthews went to a party hosted by his sister-in-law, Pippa Middleton (yes, the future Queen of England’s sister), who thoughtfully served him a non-alcoholic ‘clean’ cocktail. “He thought it tasted terrible and told her he could do better—he’s fearless,” says Paretti. “He’s not a chemist or a mixologist but knows what a good cocktail tastes like.” He set out to do just that, raising funds and creating what’s now, says Paretti, the No.3 non-alcohol spirits brand globally, led by their top sellers, Clean T (tequila alternative) and Clean G (gin alternative).

CleanCo’s rise corresponds with a recent report by the International Wine and Spirits Review (IWSR)’s Drinks Market Analysis, which says that the NA category continues to grow, with the overall product volume increasing by 29 percent last year, with millennials and Gen Z representing 62 percent of the market share for these products. 

The journey from drinker to dry is a common one in the NA business. CleanCo’s Matthews, as well as many others in the business, waking up one day and deciding he wanted to take a break. “Early on I felt great, slept better, lost weight, less stress… long story short, I thought the category was interesting,” says Sean Goldsmith, co-founder, with Trevor Wolfe, of The Zero Proof, a non-alcoholic beverage company based in Atlanta that imports, sells and distributes NA wine, spirits and cocktails to consumers through its website. 

Together with Wolfe he imports three premium Scandinavian NA brands—Oddbird (from Sweden), ISH (Denmark) and Gnista (Sweden)—and they created Lapo’s (an Italian inspired aperitivo brand) and Saint Viviana (a premium domestic wine brand). “Our wines can be found on Michelin-star restaurants,” says Goldsmith proudly, “including Eleven Madison Park, Alinea, Next, Boka and Bacchanalia.”

While all this talk of abstinence might spell trouble for the alcohol business down the line, there’s hope of an emerging middle ground, according to that IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, being led by legal-aged Gen Zs who are more likely to fall into the ‘substituters’ group than ‘abstainers.’ This means that younger legal-aged recruits to no/low aren’t “all or nothing”—they switch between alcohol and other products. 

“The space is getting complicated and noisy, but we offer the taste of the actual spirit without any effect on the body, and we do it in a natural way,” he says, “Like-for-like in a mixed drink is where we are, but our North Star is like-for-like neat—we’re not there yet, but we’ll get there.”