An Indiana winery importing grapes from California, Oregon and Washington claims to produce world's only naturally-sweetened, sugar-free wines using a natural non-caloric sweetener in three variants, designed for those who can't or don't want sugar.
Chateau Thomas in Plainfield, Indiana uses Zerose, a patented natural sweetener to produce Red, White and a Blush variant. It produces wines from vitis vinifera grapes harvested in California, Oregon and Washington State. The grapes are chilled to 1° C and shipped to the winery in the Midwestern state of Indiana in 1-ton bins by refrigerated trucks to ensure freshness within hours of being harvested.
The white wine, Slender White is made from Muscat grapes and has peach and honey flavours with soft and easy finish with no bitterness or acidity. Slender Red is made from Rubired while the Blush uses a combination of Chenin Blanc and Rubired. All wines are priced at $11.
During its 25 years history, Chateau Thomas wines have won over 400 medals and awards in several competitions including at the international level. The winery has also been awarded four Governor's Trophies at the Indy International Wine Competition claimed to be the second largest international wine competition in the US as the best winery in Indiana. The winery claims their wines have been served to the President and Vice President of the U.S.
Chateau Thomas Winery was founded by Dr. Charles Thomas, a practicing Obstetrician-Gynaecologist in Indianapolis who began making wine as a hobby. He visited Napa many times to study under famous winemakers until he opened his own winery.
In applying his medical background to wine-making, Dr. Thomas discovered he could create wines using Zerose, a sugar produced by yeast fermentation, that he reports has no calories, a 0 glycemic index, no carbs, no aftertaste, and does not affect insulin levels. He says, "even though it has the identical flavour spectrum as sugar, it has no side effects because it cannot be metabolized by the human body."
Whether the three 'Slender' wines have genuine benefits for diabetes-suffering wine drinkers or have a niche market for the weight-watchers or whether it is a pure marketing gimmick is for the consumer to decide but the budding entrepreneurs in India who want to quickly set up wineries in Karnataka exploiting the recent liberal laws should find the news interesting as they can buy grapes in Maharashtra and transport to Karnataka for vinification- Chateau Banyan claims to have already done it with their winery in Goa.
Using the proper logistics and winemaking techniques they can also hope to make award winning wines as this winery has done during the 25 year history. It could also be good news for the Maharashtra grape growers, especially in the southern belt, closer to Karnataka.
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