SEATTLE — Jessica Selander has been sober for more than fifteen years — and in those fifteen years, she's discovered something about the choices of non-alcoholic drinks.
"As I got older, you know, I experienced a lot of those adult life moments," Selander said. "I got married, and I had Martinelli's Sparkling Cider. I'd get a new job. And it was Martinelli's Sparkling Cider. I got so tired of feeling like I was at the kid's table."
Selander wanted to create something other than sparkling juice — a non-alcoholic wine that actually tastes like wine. Good wine!
"I'm just someone who wanted a good non-alcoholic wine, a premium non-alcoholic wine, a dry non-alcoholic wine," Selander said.
She met with wine scientists — yes, they exist — to remove the alcohol from wine on a molecular level.
"The wine gets separated out into parts," Selander explained. "You have the flavor, you've got the alcohol, and then you've got the body of the wine. And so in our case, what we do is put the flavor and the body back together, and you just keep that alcohol out."
That's how you get Jøyus — the non-alcoholic wine that tastes so much like wine, it won over the judges at the San Francisco International Wine Competition! Their Sparkling Rosé won gold, and their Sparkling White won bronze.
Both Jøyus wines are dry, sparkling wines with classy bottles to match their award-winning interiors. Selander explains those gorgeous labels are for two reasons — to make you feel the adult you are, and to deflect the pesky questions many sober people get when they decline a drink.
"I think a lot of times when people are not drinking, there's just all this pressure," Selander said. "But when you're drinking something that looks like everything else, for some reason, the questions don't happen."
Jøyus isn't just for people who are committed to sobriety, though. Maybe someone doesn't want to drink for a night. Maybe a pregnant person wants a fancy glass of something bubbly. Jøyus is for them, too — anyone who wants the joy of wine in a glass, without the alcohol.
Jøyus is available at many stores around Western Washington — and Alaska! You can find a full list of their stores here, or you can order bottles online.
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