Colorado Verjus Is Perfect for Your Next Mocktail

Thanks to hospitality veteran Kevin Murphy, wine isn’t the only sipper coming from Colorado’s vineyards. The former restaurant beverage director first learned about verjus—a zero-proof liquid derived from pressing unripe grapes—at a Chicago farm-to-table eatery, where he centered his drink program around the tart liquid, using it in place of citrus in craft cocktails and mocktails. “Verjus is not overly sweet,” Murphy says. “It has a weight and natural acidity that drinks more like wine.”

After moving to Colorado in 2021, Murphy began working to bottle and distribute a locally sourced version under the label Horizon Verjus. Verjus (“green juice” in French) isn’t a new concept: The ingredient has been used in cooking and beverage-making since the Middle Ages. But it has recently been gaining traction in the United States, and Murphy hopes the increasing interest in nonalcoholic alternatives to products like triple sec and limoncello will only bolster that growth.

The process of creating verjus begins midsummer when winemakers thin out grape vines. To make his, Murphy partners with Palisade winery the Ordinary Fellow, where, instead of being left on the ground, the hard, green, unripe castaways are collected and turned into the brand’s Early Season Verjus, which is vegetal with bright minerality. Deeper into the fall, grapes that didn’t ripen enough become the Late Harvest Verjus, with notes of red apple, tart strawberry, and hibiscus.

Verjus isn’t just a flavorful mixer, though. It’s good for the environment, too: One bottle of Horizon Verjus replaces 16 (likely imported) lemons. For a taste, visit Aurora’s Annette—one of more than a dozen Colorado eateries and drinkeries that stock it—and order the NA Negroni Sbagliato, made with Horizon Verjus’ Late Harvest Verjus, Strongwater Aperitif Spritz, and NA gin Amass Riverine.

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