Elton John Zero

Elton John has spent decades throwing parties. When he stopped drinking in 1990, after a very public reckoning with addiction, the question of what to serve guests who don't drink presumably became a recurring one. Elton John Zero is the answer he and husband David Furnish eventually landed on: a 0% sparkling wine built around the kind of occasion where a glass of something elegant matters.

The brand launched in January 2026 in partnership with Benchmark Drinks, the company behind celebrity wine collaborations with Kylie Minogue and Gary Barlow. That lineage is relevant. Benchmark knows how to position a bottle, and the presentation here is deliberate: a distinctive blue bottle carrying Elton's E Star motif, designed to look at home on a restaurant table rather than an afterthought shelf.

There is currently one product: a Blanc de Blancs made from 100% Chardonnay grapes sourced from cooler northern parts of Italy and produced in Germany. What sets it apart technically is the fermentation method. Most alcohol-free sparkling wines are made by producing a full-strength wine and then stripping out the alcohol, which can leave flavour gaps. Elton John Zero uses selected bacteria rather than yeast, so no alcohol is generated at any point in the process. The result is something built as a zero rather than reduced to one.

At launch, stockists included Sainsbury's and a handful of high-profile London venues including The River Café and Lilibet's in Mayfair. It sits at the premium end of the supermarket alcohol-free shelf, priced around £10 a bottle.

Celebrity alcohol-free launches vary wildly in how serious they are. This one has at least invested in a genuinely different production process, and the personal motivation behind it is credible. Whether the range expands beyond a single sparkling wine will be the real test of staying power.

The Collection

Blanc de Blancs