“If people are provoked by you, it means you are getting their attention. There is so much white space in wine that you can go for,” says Amanda Thomson as she looks back on a still relatively short career in wine in which she has more than made her mark - particularly in making a case for premium zero alcohol wine brands.
It was way back in 2013 when she brought her first premium zero dosage Champagne to market - the appropriately named Skinny Champagne, closely followed by Skinny Prosecco, that was all based on creating sparkling wine brands with no added sugar.
Both of which came into the drinks industry when virtually everyone else was looking the other way and paying zero interest in top quality, lower sugar wine- particularly not in the premium wine sector.
Amanda Thomson has stuck to her vision of making a quality of alcohol-free wine that can earn their place on a Michelin restaurant's wine list
In 2019 she followed what success she was able to have with her “Skinny” brands, with the launch of Noughty, that has gone on to capture its share of a new category of alcohol-free fine wine.
Or, as she describes it: “Noughty offers a fine wine experience, without the alcohol.”
This time round the market was far more open to the idea of no and low alcohol thanks to the huge initial success there has been with big power brands in the beer and spirits sectors.
But alcohol-free fine wine was still a big hurdle to overcome. There’s no doubt that Noughty has more than played its part in jumping over some of those hurdles and has a few shelves worth of awards and listings in an ever-growing number of top restaurants, hotels and bars in major cities around the world to prove it.
Yet for all its success Amanda Thomson has remained very much in the background, very happy for her brand to do the talking for her.
She is arguably amongst the best equipped of the no and low brand owners to create a high profile for herself having moved into drinks following a successful TV and radio career, most notably as a BBC arts broadcaster for a number of years.
But TV news’ loss is the wine industry’s gain. She says her eyes were first opened to what was possible in wine thanks to the time she spent with the late Gerard Basset MW MS OBE at its hotel Terravina in the New Forest.
“He was extremely generous to me and was my first mentor in wine,” she says.
Ahead of her time
Amanda Thomson first made her name in alcohol-free with her Skinny Champagne before developing the Noughty range in 2019
It was thanks to his encouragement that she moved to Paris to do the Cordon Bleu wine training and marketing diploma in 2010. A course that gave her the skills to appreciate wine and finesse her blind tasting skills.
She says looking back she was very much “ahead of her time” by wanting to move into low sugar and alcohol-free wine, never mind creating a premium non-alcoholic wine that could sit proudly on a fine wine list in a restaurant.
“But then my mother was making muesli in our garden shed and going around the neighbourhood on her bike delivering it to neighbours long before muesli was available in your local supermarket, in the 70s” she says.
“I have always been pretty single minded in my life and wanted to do my own thing and have control over it. I am very driven,” she adds.
That said, she admits it was a tough decision to leave what was a “good contract at the BBC” to go and “create something for herself”.
“But I felt like I had made my impact in broadcasting and it was time to build something for myself.”
Doing the Cordon Bleu course gave her the necessary foundation to build on. It was also whilst doing the course that she had the chance to taste a Champagne with no added sugar and it proved to be her “eureka” moment.
That is when the idea for Skinny Champagne was born, based on the idea of making a Champagne that could be enjoyed by more people. Or in her words she wanted to “take something great and make it accessible”.
She was also not a big alcohol drinker herself and would often find herself resorting to drinking sparkling water at events and wanted to create a drink that people like her could enjoy when on a night out.
She admits her “eureka” moment was not shared by many of the influential drinks buyers of the time and whilst she had some initial success in the UK she quickly became focused on what was possible in key markets around the world which is how Thomson & Scott - the name of her business which she now runs with her husband Ian Thomson - has grown such an impressive international reach.
She says her training as a journalist made her resilient to all the initial “no’s” she received and she knew that if she was to disrupt and “provoke” the market she would have had to come up with the answers to some difficult questions.
Quality and taste first
Amanda Thomson has worked hard to position Noughty in premium bars and restaurants around the world and works with bar teams to create exotic cocktails using Noughty drinks
The big driving factors for Thomson when looking to create alcohol-free products are its quality, its taste profile and how accessible and easy they are to drink. They have to be at the highest level possible, she stresses.
The fact she has been able to secure listings in a growing list of premium and Michelin-starred venues around the world, shows her commitment to make and sell alcohol-free sparkling wines that deserve their premium price points.
“People will say that wine is bought on price but I always go on quality and taste as the levers to sell. People used to say you can’t sell Prosecco over £15, but I did, as it tasted beautiful and even tasted like a Champagne on a blind tasting.”
Thomson is now in a strong position to look back warmly over the last 15 years but she says she has had to battle for every bottle sold and every listing made.
Even in 2019 when she launched Noughty, as an organic, vegan, alcohol-free wine, there were many in the trade who thought she “was crazy” coming to the market to sell at premium prices in both the on and off-trade.
“I think it goes back to my childhood. I have a determined spirit and never lacked confidence or vision. Then as a journalist you have that natural curiosity and bravery,” she says, whilst quickly stressing it has not at all been easy.
Which means when it gets great unsolicited influential reviews for its wines it really makes a big difference, says Thomson.
She was particularly pleased just after Noughty launched to get a rave review from wine writer, Tamlyn Currin, on jancisrobinson.com who described Noughty as “hands down the best alcohol-free sparkling wine I have ever tasted, and one of the best alcohol-free wines I've tasted overall”. She even bought a case for herself.
This was followed in 2023 when Noughty won USA TODAY Readers’ Choice Award for Best Non-Alcoholic Wine 2023 - an award chosen by US consumers from a short list of 20 brands.
Strong close team
The Thomson & Scott team is small but strong, she stresses.
Thomson says she has learnt a lot from her husband, Ian, who is a communications and publicity specialist working with high profile media and film companies.
“He has been a fantastic person to lean on,” she says.
She says she is also lucky to have Patrik Franzen, one of the original founders of Camden Town Brewery, as her “secret weapon” and financial whizz business partner.
“I really wanted to have him involved. He is a serial entrepreneur and also built up and sold Barworks which is where I used to go and drink in Carnaby Street. He is such a great character and is amazing with numbers and forensic.”
She adds: "If I could be described as a visionary entrepreneur, he is a brilliant forecaster. Then I have my husband as our story teller. There is such a strength in working with brilliant people.”
The day-to-day experience of trying to introduce brands into a market that does not necessarily want them has also been massively influential on how she now operates.
“I have learnt that you have to be extremely focused on what you are doing and what your goals are. I am all about; how do we sell more bottles to the right people? I am all about the work to make that happen.”
Sourcing and production
Noughty Monté non-alcoholic red wine is looking to premiumise and push alcohol-free wines close to £20 retail
The Noughty range of still and sparkling wines now stretches in price from a minimum £10.95 retail through to its Noughty Monté Non-Alcoholic Red Wine at £18.95. Noughty Rouge, their original red wine is now their number two seller after the Hero sparkling Chardonnay.
The Skinny wines - which had built up sales of well over £1 million a year, changed branding to Thomson & Scott and then were let go entirely, with Noughty becoming a new business in 2019.
They had to be brought under the company brand originally due to changes in labelling rules over what could be termed “skinny” after Thomson had effectively created a new category focused on high quality/low sugar wine.
Thomson is also constantly analysing what is the best way to make an alcohol-free quality wine. She has over the years used, or become an expert in each of the many techniques that have emerged.
It means she is happy to use different methods depending on the wine and where it is being made. She is using spinning cone technology for the Noughty wines it is making in South Africa, but is using vaccuum distillation for the wines that are being made and produced in Germany - using grapes, for example, from southern Spain.
But she stresses that ultimately it is about the quality of the grapes that you are sourcing, and that they are true to where they come from.
Noughty, for example, is one of the few alcohol-free brands that uses fruit from single vineyard sites. Yes, you might end up with the alcohol taken out, but the essence, the quality and the sense of place in the grape should all be there in the final wine, she says.
“I am elevating the wine, without alcohol not fighting it,” she says.
It means, for example, its Noughty Monté Non-Alcoholic Red Wine and Rouge wines are made from 100% sourced Syrah from drylands vineyards in Darling in South Africa. Grapes that are grown in strategically selected sites, with deep soils, decomposed granite and rich clay, which get the warm sunny and cooling effect of the Atlantic Ocean.
Its white and rosé Noughty wines come from bush vines in dry farmed vineyards in the Western Cape in South Africa. Vineyards that she says are planted on south-west facing slopes to capture cool breezes from the Atlantic Ocean and cold Benguela current that have deep soils from decomposed granite, clay rich, and good drainage.
Its Noughty Monté Non-Alcoholic Red Wine is also aged in French oak and comes with a £18.95 price point and where Thomson wants to take the category next.
Strategic distribution
The Noughty range has now expanded into mini bottles - like its Sparkling Chardonnay 200ml
The Noughty range has now firmly positioned itself as one of the go to premium alcohol-free quality sparkling and still wines in the premium and fine dining trade - with listings with prestigious names in cities all over the world.
It is also one of those rare brands that you can see in fine dining but it has also now got major listings with the likes of Waitrose, Majestic, Sainsbury’s,Tesco and Ocado. `
Thomson admits that whilst she was fairly comfortable selling into the premium on-trade she had to learn from the “ground up” getting her foot in the door in the major retailers in the UK and the US.
She says she will always be hugely grateful and respectful to Pierpaolo Petrassi and Sarah Holland at Waitrose for first giving them a chance with a major listing at Waitrose that really made a massive difference to the brand in the UK.
“They took a chance with us. Every brand builder wants a listing with Waitrose,” she says.
It is also now very pleased to be making great strides and building distribution with Hallgarten & Novum Wines, over the last year in the UK - for which she has particularly strong praise for Andrew Shaw, wine director at Hallgarten’s owners Coterie Holdings.
Noughty has also built a strong following through direct marketing and selling through its own website and building a community of customers that way as well.
It has also been able to build a steady and growing presence in the US with key distributors in target states which, combined with its success in the UK, has helped drive good growth and distribution across the key Asian markets where its focus is purely on getting listings in Michelin restaurants and five star hotels – trophy accounts.
Achieving B Corp status in 2020 has also been a big milestone for the brand and the business and in opening doors for potential new high level customers, says Thomson.
She also urges other entrepreneurs and business leaders to make full use of Linked-in as a thought leadership platform where you can share your thoughts and visions for business. She says she has been able to gain “incredible reach” through the targeted opinions she has shared on there.
But it needs to be handled carefully and simply contacting people and “asking for stuff” is not the right way to go. You need to build relationships and earn people’s trust and “get a connection,” she stresses.
Long term potential
Amanda Thomson says: “We want other players to raise the game with us."
As for where she sees the overall no and low alcohol sector she says it is still to see its “hockey stick” phase in wine, where we have seen a lot of activity but overall sales are still not huge. But for those with the brands, the vision and the determination to look at the long term, then the potential is massive, she claims.
This after all is still such a new category and it will take time to bed in and naturally work through which are the brands and the businesses that are going to drive the category forward in the medium to long term.
She says you only have to look at the number of new no and low alcohol products there were at Wine Paris to recognise this is a category with a very strong future.
But she warns: “There a lot of people doing no and low for commercial reasons who are not doing it for quality. We are there to raise the bar. Quality and price has to sit hand in hand. People will only come back to us if the quality is right. If you are only selling a commercial no and low product you are going to fall flat on your face.”
She adds: “We want other players to raise the game with us. Who are doing alcohol-free because of the quality. Who want to build brands , alongside that high quantity benchmark.
Thomson ends our chat by jokingly referring to a compliment she received from one of her US customers who called her the “OG” - Original GOAT (Greatest of all Time) - in alcohol-free. It’s a compliment that’s hard to disagree with.
* To find out more about Noughty and Thomson & Scott and its wines click here.
