Millennium Party Planning: Non-Alcoholic Alternatives Needn't Be Dull; `Fre' Brochure And Web Site Provide Creative Non-Alcoholic Beverage Recipes.

ST. HELENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1999--

Nearly 40 percent of revelers this holiday season - among them designated drivers, expectant mothers and dieters - will abstain from alcoholic beverages, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Sutter Home Winery, which produces the best-selling table wines in the United States, as well as the country's most successful non-alcoholic wine brand, called Fre, wants to help party hosts and attendees celebrate the Millennium in style with - or without - alcohol.

To do so, the winery is offering a free brochure featuring tantalizing non-alcoholic drink recipes developed by Dale DeGroff, former bartender at the famed Rainbow Room in New York City, who is known in mixology circles as "King Cocktail" and the "DaVinci of Drink." The recipes are also available on Sutter Home's website at www.sutterhome.com/fre.

"Historically, if you weren't drinking something alcoholic, you were sacrificing taste, style and sophistication," said DeGroff, currently head bartender at Blackbird Restaurant in New York City. "That's no longer the case. Sutter Home Fre non-alcoholic wines provide a perfect base for creating sophisticated, eye-catching, delicious non-alcoholic mixed drinks that hosts can serve to their abstaining guests who want something tastier and more festive than bottled water, iced tea, or soft drinks."

The Sutter Home Fre portfolio includes the classic holiday selections of Sparkling Brut and Spumante as well as White Zinfandel, Premium Red, Premium White, Chardonnay and Merlot. The wines are made using a unique dealcoholization process that safeguards fragile wine aromas and flavors while removing all but 0.2% of the alcohol.

"We expect Fre Sparkling Brut and Fre Spumante to be our best sellers for millennium parties," said Robert Celsi, marketing manager for Sutter Home Fre. "By themselves or used in making drinks such as Mimosas or Champagne Cocktails, these bubbly favorites are as pleasing to the palate as traditional sparkling wines."

Consumers wishing to obtain Dale DeGroff's free non-alcoholic drinks recipe brochure should call 1-800-662-5240 or e-mail their request to [e-mail].

Sutter Home Winery

One of America's oldest family-owned wineries, Sutter Home was established in California's Napa Valley in 1874. It has been owned since 1947 by the Trinchero family, who emigrated to the U.S. from northern Italy in the 1920s. Mom-and-pop wine producers for over three decades, the Trincheros' fortunes changed dramatically in the 1970s when they created a light, fruity, pink wine called White Zinfandel, which turned millions of Americans into wine drinkers and transformed Sutter Home into a wine industry powerhouse. Today, Sutter Home is the fourth-largest winery in the U.S. and the country's best-selling table wine brand. The company owns 6,000 vineyard acres throughout California, produces a full range of premium varietal wines, and exports its products to 65 countries throughout the world.