Five minutes with... Amanda Thomson of Thomson & Scott
We love prosecco as much as the next gal, especially when it’s organic, vegan and low in sugar. We caught up with Amanda Thomson, founder and CEO of Thomson & Scott, to find out all about the innovate brand and their delicious sparkling wines - including a new no-alcohol version, Noughty.
When did Thomson & Scott launch, and what was the idea behind it?
Thomson & Scott launched with our portfolio in London in 2016. We planned from the start to revolutionise the way in which people considered what was in their wine bottle. We discovered that many sparkling wines contain far too much sugar and unnecessary chemicals and we wanted consumers to know this.
We also wanted to find a way of promoting organic and vegan production methods. From this idea skinny champagne and skinny prosecco were born.
Why do you think it’s important to choose a high quality prosecco – what are the benefits?
There’s been a race to the bottom of the market regarding prosecco sales in the UK for one. Prosecco has flooded the market but so much of it has been depressingly low quality.
We set out to promote the high quality aspects of beautifully crafted 100% organic prosecco while also avoiding adding unnecessary sugar to the process and promoting its pure and vegan attributes - and most importantly how delicious it tastes!
Tell us more about Noughty, your new alcohol-free sparkling wine.
Noughty is hugely exciting for us and offers us ground-breaking opportunities globally. We realised that the non-alcoholic sparkling wine space wasn’t being properly serviced at all across the world. There were many low-grade bottles for sale but nothing that tasted good and felt special, in that you would feel comfortable having on your dinner table for a party or ordering at a bar.
Following on with our mission of promoting wonderful organic vegan wine, Noughty is the obvious extension of that. We believe that alcohol free drinking is going to be the future very soon. And this is our answer to the question, how much fun can you have without alcohol?
With Christmas coming up, what are your go-to easy fizz cocktails for entertaining?
We’ve had some incredible cocktails designed for us by the guys at Barworks in London, which are featured on our website. The Cherry Bombshell is a particular favourite of mine during the festive season.
Ideally we suggest that consumers can simply switch out our delicious prosecco for Noughty when they would like to be alcohol-free and many don’t even know the difference from a taste perspective. That’s been a mission up until now and we think we’ve cracked it which is very cool.
What’s the perfect food pairing for Thomson & Scott prosecco?
Some of us are vegetarian and some vegan at Thomson & Scott, and our advice from experience would be to enjoy with anything delicious that works for you. Carnivores and pescatarians still enjoy our wine too though of course, and Asian cuisine works beautifully.
Our wines are so damn good though that you can drink them through aperetif all the way to dessert with any or every course!
Are there any exciting things in the pipeline you can tell us about?
We cannot wait to have our Noughty mini bottles arriving in the UK soon which means that they can be very much grab and go from your fridge or the ultimate train treat! And (whispers) Noughty Rosé. Watch this space. Innovation is our middle name at Thomson & Scott.