2026 INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR
French Bloom has been nominated for Innovator of the Year at the 2026 Wine Enthusiast Wine Star Awards, recognizing the Maison’s role in pushing the boundaries of non-alcoholic wine.
Since launching in 2021, French Bloom has approached alcohol-free sparkling wine with the standards and ambition of a wine house, beginning with the quality of the wine itself and continually refining every stage of the process.
Five years later, French Bloom is present in more than 70 countries and has become one of the most awarded names in premium non-alcoholic wine. Its cuvées have been named World’s Best Alcohol-Free Wine at the World Sparkling Wine Awards for three years and voted Best Non-Alcoholic Wine by USA TODAY 10BEST readers three times.
The ambition, however, remains the same: to create alcohol-free wines with complexity, precision and a true sense of place.
A New Approach to Non-Alcoholic Wine
French Bloom was founded on a simple idea: removing alcohol should not mean removing the experience of wine.
The Maison creates its cuvées from carefully selected organic wines, with organic Chardonnay playing a central role in the collection. Particular attention is given to the quality of the wine base before dealcoholization, because the character of the finished cuvée begins in the vineyard and the cellar.
The process continues through dealcoholization, blending and the final stages of production, with the aim of preserving freshness, structure, aromatic complexity and length.
This wine-first approach has guided French Bloom from Le Blanc and Le Rosé through to L’Extra Brut and La Cuvée Vintage 2023.
Pushing Alcohol-Free Wine Further
French Bloom has always believed that non-alcoholic wine should be judged first as wine, not simply by the absence of alcohol. That philosophy has shaped the development of the collection over the past five years.
La Cuvée Vintage 2023 marked an important step forward. Made from 100% organic Blanc de Blancs, with the wine aged in oak, it embraces the character of a specific vintage rather than seeking absolute consistency from one year to the next.
La Cuvée Vintage 2023 marked an important step. Rather than pursuing absolute consistency from one year to the next, the cuvée explores the character of a particular vintage and the wines from which it is made. It also reflects a question that is becoming increasingly central to French Bloom’s work: how far can non-alcoholic wine go in expressing vintage, origin and terroir?
For French Bloom, that is where some of the most interesting possibilities now lie.
“What excites me most is that we’re no longer asking whether non-alcoholic wine can be great. We’re asking how far it can go, how much place, vintage and character it can express. That feels like a much more interesting question."
- Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger, Co Founder French Bloom
Limoux, Vintage and Terroir
French Bloom’s work in Limoux, in the South of France, is central to this next chapter.
With its long history of sparkling wine production and a climate particularly suited to Chardonnay, Limoux offers the Maison the opportunity to work further upstream, from the vineyard through to the creation of increasingly precise wine bases.
Greater involvement in the vineyard and cellar also means greater attention to the character of each harvest.
The objective is not simply to make better non-alcoholic wine. It is to create wines with greater identity, precision and connection to where they come from.
Five Years of French Bloom
Since its launch in 2021, French Bloom has grown from a new idea in alcohol-free sparkling wine into an international Maison present in more than 70 countries.
Its wines have received repeated international recognition, including being named World’s Best Alcohol-Free Wine at the World Sparkling Wine Awards for three years and winning USA TODAY 10BEST’s readers’ vote for Best Non-Alcoholic Wine three times.
Other important milestones have followed, including the arrival of Moët Hennessy as a minority investor, French Bloom’s partnership with Formula 1, and a growing presence in leading restaurants, hotels and retailers around the world.
For co-founders Maggie Frerejean-Taittinger and Constance Jablonski, those milestones have always gone hand in hand with the evolution of the wine itself.
Each new cuvée has been an opportunity to improve, experiment and take the category further.
Why the Wine Enthusiast Nomination Matters
The Wine Enthusiast Wine Star Awards recognize the people and companies helping shape the future of the wine and beverage industry.
French Bloom’s nomination for Innovator of the Year is especially meaningful because innovation has been at the heart of the Maison since its creation.
At French Bloom, innovation does not mean turning away from wine tradition. It means taking the knowledge, craftsmanship and rituals of wine and asking how they can evolve.
That approach has led French Bloom from its first organic alcohol-free sparkling cuvées to increasingly sophisticated wine bases, vintage expression and a deeper focus on terroir.
The Wine Enthusiast nomination recognizes that work, but also something larger: non-alcoholic wine is increasingly becoming part of the broader conversation about the future of wine.
The Future of French Bloom
The next stage for French Bloom is increasingly focused on what happens before the alcohol is removed: in our vineyard, the quality of the grapes, the wine base and the character of each harvest.
The Maison will continue to refine its approach to dealcoholization while exploring how vintage, origin and terroir can be expressed more clearly in wines with 0.0% alcohol.
Limoux will be central to that work.
Five years after French Bloom was created, the possibilities for non-alcoholic wine look very different.
And we intend to keep expanding them.
Discover French Bloom
The French Bloom collection includes Le Blanc, Le Rosé, L’Extra Brut and La Cuvée Vintage 2023, each offering a different expression of the Maison’s approach to premium non-alcoholic sparkling wine.
French Bloom creates 0.0% alcohol sparkling wines in France from organic chardonnay, combining French winemaking expertise with a new vision for the future of wine.
