PROXIES

Proxies originated within Acid League, a fermentation and vinegar company founded in August 2020 and co-founded by Charlie Friedmann's cousin Scott alongside two food scientists from the University of Guelph and a designer. The wine proxies were developed by Acid League's product team, drawing inspiration from posca, an ancient Roman drink made with vinegar, honey, and herbs. Proxies was started in 2020 by a collective of wine professionals seeking to build something with more complexity than what existed in the non-alcoholic space, and launched in January 2021 as a direct-to-consumer online subscription — a 'not wine club' shipping three new blends per month to subscribers.^[1],[2]

The brand was spun off from Acid League as an independent company in 2022, with the two companies' websites splitting in August of that year. Charlie Friedmann became president of Proxies in October 2022 following the split, and the brand launched a new core line in November 2022. Proxies is based in Toronto, where it manufactures its liquid in-house. Its lead investor is a Canadian fund focused on better-for-you food and green agriculture — referred to as Investico, a Toronto-based firm that had also invested in Acid League, and elsewhere as InvestEco, described as a $100 million fund — alongside Brand Project, a Toronto-based CPG and DTC-focused fund.^[1],[3]

Charlie Friedmann — Co-Founder & President. Charlie Friedmann is the co-founder and president of Proxies. He grew up in Montreal in a family that ran a frozen chicken business, and he claims his family invented the dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget sold under the name 'Dino Buddies.' He attended McGill University for his undergraduate degree and NYU Law School, then worked as a corporate lawyer at a large New York firm from 2008 to approximately 2011, handling securities work including IPOs and stock offerings. He later moved into restaurant consulting in New York, helping open concepts and build wine and cocktail lists, and worked at City Winery, an urban winery bringing in grapes from California and Long Island, where he learned winemaking techniques including stomping grapes.^[1]

Friedmann also worked as a food, wine, and travel writer for roughly two years, publishing in the Globe and Mail, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Wine Enthusiast, including a series of three stories about the natural wine movement in Canadian restaurants for the Globe and Mail. His broader background includes co-founding a direct-to-consumer men's athletic apparel brand. He joined Acid League as one of its first employees to run marketing, write copy, and design labels before co-founding Proxies. He currently lives in Toronto.

Scott & Devin. Friedmann co-founded Proxies alongside his cousin Scott — a co-founder of Acid League — and chief product officer Devin, a winemaker who had been traveling the world working in wine. Devin had worked in Australia and New Zealand and returned to Canada during the pandemic, becoming a key collaborator in developing the Proxies concept. Two of Acid League's founders are food scientists, and the person in charge of making the proxies is described as a winemaker with a food background.^[1],[4]

PROXIES employs an expert winemaker who curates personalized product recommendations for customers.^[5]

Proxies are built from the ground up rather than made by stripping alcohol out of existing wine. They are designed to look, feel, and drink like wine — with acidity, texture, tannin, and spice — and are crafted to pair with food and be served in wine glasses. The producer describes them as layered blends of juices, teas, spices, bitters, and more, intended to carry the complexity of wine without the alcohol. They are plant-based, low in sugar, and characterized by the producer as hangover-free.^[6],[7]

The range was designed with a food-pairing mentality. The absence of alcohol is presented as enabling better pairings with spicy food, since it does not exacerbate the effect of capsaicin. Individual beverages are named to evoke the grapes or regions they seek to emulate — Blanc Slate as a Sauvignon Blanc-alike and Red Clay as a Beaujolais alternative.^[2]

Proxies produces wine-style non-alcoholic beverages across red, white, rosé, and sparkling categories, all with an ABV under 0.5%. The current portfolio includes still white and red bottles, a sparkling line, and 250mL sparkling ready-to-drink cans in white, rosé, and red. The core bottled lineup includes Big Red (a still red), Blanc Slate and Crisp White (still whites), Bellini, Brut Rosé, and Gold Crush (sparkling). Beyond wine styles, the producer also makes canned cocktails, including a Spicy Margarita with blood orange and jalapeño, a Gin & Tonic, and a Dry Cider, and offers a Craft Cocktail Sampler with spicy, crisp, and tropical profiles. A Sparkling Celebration bottling carries peach and raspberry flavor notes.^[1],[8]

Proxies began as an online subscription club, initially releasing three new blends every month and later switching to six new products per quarter. It sends new flavors directly to subscribers as part of the club and offers a Build-A-Box option letting customers select six bottles of a single flavor or any combination of styles. Across accounts, the producer states it has made well over 50 distinct Proxies, more than 60 varieties in its first two years, and nearly 100 different blends since launching — a figure Friedmann framed as 100 blends over three and a half years in pursuit of the best wine-like beverage. The producer states Proxies has sold over 500,000 bottles to more than 100,000 customers, and Friedmann said it reached approximately $15 million in total revenue over its first few years of operation.^[9],[10]

Monthly & quarterly club releases. The subscription club shipped themed editions, each typically featuring three beverages. Documented editions include: 2021.12 Best of 2021 (Sunbeam, Chios, Serene); 2022.2 Citrus Season (Clementine, Supreme, Zest); 2022.3 Full Body Warm-Up (Alpenglow, Wala, Cassia); 2022.4 Spring Forward (Mistral, Sauvage, Garrigue); 2022.6 Rosé Everyday (Gallica, Ribes, Junos); 2022.7 Barbecue Season (Basalt, Pyre, Smolder); 2022.8 Umami Edition (Miso, Soul, Umai); 2022.9 Perfect Pairings (Tigre, Sierra, Alev); 2022.11 Sparkling (Fizz, Glow, Sparkle); and 2022.12 Fan Favorite (Alpenglow, Akane, Cassia).^[11]

Proxies builds each blend from scratch rather than de-alcoholizing wine, layering varietal wine grape juice with other fruits, premium teas, verjus, whole spices, roots, herbs, and house-made aromatics likened to cocktail bitters to reconstruct the tannin, texture, acid, body, and length of wine. The liquid is made in-house in Toronto using winemaking techniques such as racking, with production characterized as small-batch crafting, expert blending, and extensive testing to achieve flavor balance; a local partner handles only bottling and processing.^[4]

Verjus base. Verjus — pressed from unripe wine grapes — is the acidic backbone of the range. Proxies sources verjus from carefully selected Niagara wine grapes, produced to its specifications at harvest each year, and it forms the base of almost all Proxies products, used to mimic the bite, body, and length of a fine vintage. It appears in Crisp White, Bellini, Gold Crush, and Blanc Slate, among others.^[1]

Tea infusion — hot and cold brew. Proxies brews its teas using both hot infusion and cold brew methods, incorporating them as structural and aromatic layers. Tea blends recur across the range:^[1]

• Gold Crush — a blend of white peony and milk oolong
• Brut Rosé — sencha and jasmine
• Big Red — a tea blend of cascara, black malt, hibiscus, and chicory root
• Crisp White — green tea
• Blanc Slate — white peony tea
• Bubbly Rosé — a blend of white peony, freeze-dried blackcurrant, and lavender

Whole spices, botanicals & house-made aromatic extracts. Proxies uses whole spices and botanicals prepared in-house, plus house-made aromatic extracts akin to cocktail bitters that add spice, structure, and a bitter backbone. Aromatic extract blends recur across the range:^[1]

• Gold Crush — a blend of juniper, fennel, makrut lime, and gentian
• Blanc Slate — a blend of galangal, makrut lime, and habanero (a hint of chili on the finish)
• Big Red — a blend of brandy barrel, black peppercorn, and cayenne pepper, plus added wine tannin
• Crisp White — aged mandarin peel extract, ginger extract, and quassia extract
• Bellini — quassia bark extract
• Brut Rosé — lemon peel extract and ginger extract

Infused vinegars for acidity. Reflecting its Acid League lineage, Proxies uses small doses of infused vinegars to build acidity. Bubbly Rosé, for example, includes a pomegranate vinegar made from pomegranate concentrate and vinegar.^[3]

Wine grapes & varietal-driven bases. Varietal wine grapes and grape juice form the fruit core of many blends. Blanc Slate is built on Sauvignon Blanc grapes; the Sean Brock collaboration used Syrah grapes. Grape and wine concentrates recur across the bottled range — Sauvignon Blanc grapes and white wine concentrate in Blanc Slate, white wine concentrate in Gold Crush, and red wine grape concentrate in Big Red. An early white blend in a Gewürztraminer style, first called Tripping in Alsace and later Pastiche, showed stone fruit, clove, and high acidity with low pH.^[1]

Foraged & provenance-driven ingredients. An early blend, Sauvage (originally Terre Sauvage), was built on a wine grape base with crisp green apple and locally foraged Canadian spruce tips, and became one of the first core wholesale SKUs. The Sean Brock red drew on Appalachian roots and botanicals, elderberry, cascara, and leather britches (sun-dried green beans), inspired by his grandmother's elderberry wine. Bellini is built around ripe Georgia peaches balanced by Niagara verjus. Fruit provenance is also cited for citrus and stone-fruit components, including yuzu in Gold Crush and the Crenn collaboration Petanque.^[1],[4]

Production standards. Proxies products contain zero added sugar and are low in sugar and plant-based. The current shelf life is 18 months, extended from an initial 6 months at launch, with the company continuing to push that further.^[1],[12]

Proxies are crafted from the start with flavor and food pairing in mind, designed to mirror wine characteristics including tannin, acidity, body, spice, and depth of flavor, and to be enjoyed in wine glasses. The producer reports low calorie and sugar counts per 5 fl oz (150mL) serving across the range — 25 calories and 3g sugar in Gold Crush, 25 calories and 4g sugar in Brut Rosé, 30 calories and 6g sugar in Bellini, 35 calories and 6g sugar in both Blanc Slate and Crisp White, and 35 calories and 7g sugar in Big Red; the Bubbly Rosé cans carry 40 calories and 8g sugar per 250mL.^[13]

Individual blends span a range of sensory profiles: Big Red shows rich blackberry and cherry accented by black pepper and a hint of cigar box, deep, dark, and dry with a fresh herbaceous finish; Blanc Slate is lively and refreshing with zesty citrus and stone fruit and a hint of chili on the close; Crisp White is fresh, floral, and citrus-driven, with lychee, white flowers, spicy ginger, ripe peach, bright citrus, and zippy Niagara verjus; Gold Crush shows ripe peach, fragrant yuzu, and a hint of fennel with bright, elegant bubbles; Brut Rosé leads with tart raspberry and zesty lemon into a finish of summer peach, elderflower, and jasmine; and the Bubbly Rosé cans offer strawberry, lime zest, and vanilla.

Pairing suggestions run to the table: Big Red with ribeye steak, braised lamb shank, wild mushrooms, and creamy gorgonzola; Blanc Slate with seafood platters, spicy Thai takeout, soft goat cheese, and grilled zucchini, and favored with fish or chicken; Crisp White with grilled seafood, falafel sandwiches, crab cakes, and fresh goat cheese; Gold Crush with fried chicken, scallop crudo, caviar, and potato chips; Brut Rosé with shrimp rolls, prosciutto and peaches, takeout sushi, and mushroom ricotta toast; and Bubbly Rosé cans with salty kettle chips, jammy eggs, katsu sandos, and fancy tinned fish.

The Dominique Crenn collaboration bottlings carry their own pairing recommendations: Petanque with smoked scallops with crispy capers, caviar, and Crémeux de Bourgogne; Bulle with grilled shrimp, squid, oysters, branzino, zucchini, shishitos, and Halloumi; Tart with prawn bisque, seafood tapas, Muenster, and pumpkin gnocchi; Anar with baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, fesenjan, merguez, and lamb méchoui; Red Clay with charcuterie, roast duck, wild mushrooms, medium-rare burgers, and a harvest table; and Husk with cassoulet, roasted eggplant, beef carpaccio, and black olives.^[11]

Proxies has conducted roughly seven chef and winemaker collaborations, which Friedmann describes as arising organically and without payment. Across its collaborators, the producer names André Mack, Dominique Crenn, Beverly Kim, Johnny Clark, Division Winemaking, and Miguel de Leon, a sommelier in New York, among other Michelin-starred chefs. Its first chef collaboration was with James Beard Award-winning chef Sean Brock, developed in his Nashville kitchen with no financial component; Brock had organically become a subscriber before the partnership. The resulting red was inspired by his grandmother's elderberry wine and featured Syrah grapes, elderberry, cascara, leather britches (sun-dried green beans), and Appalachian roots and botanicals. Brock is known for Husk in Charleston and Audrey in Nashville. The 2022.1 club release with Brock (under the Acid League brand) included the beverages Audrey, Akane, and Anar.^{[1],[4],[9],[11],[13]}

Proxies collaborated with three-Michelin-star chef Dominique Crenn — chef and owner of Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, described as the only female three-Michelin-star chef in the US — who had been serving Proxies at her restaurant before the partnership. The Crenn collaboration produced a still white blend called Petanque featuring yuzu, and formed the 2023.1 club release, a six-beverage set of Petanque, Bulle, Tart, Anar, Red Clay, and Husk. Proxies also collaborated with sommelier, restaurateur, and winemaker André Hueston Mack — known from Bon Appétit — on a blend; the 2022.5 club release with Mack (under the Acid League brand) included Blanc Sheep, AHM, and Mouton Rouge.^[4],[11]

Additional collaborations span sommeliers, winemakers, and other chefs. James Beard Award-winning sommelier Miguel de Leon, a sommelier in New York, worked on the 2022.10 club release of Vinta, Bamboo, and Monsoon. Proxies collaborated with Division Winemaking Company, a winery in Portland, Oregon, on a sparkling white blend called Cluster featuring fennel, apple, and ginger. Friedmann has also cited work with Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark and Michelin-starred chefs in Chicago. Proxies released a James Beard Award winners collaboration pack featuring four James Beard-winning chefs and a three-Michelin-star collaboration pack featuring three Michelin-awarded collaborators. It also worked with Nomadica Wines on a Bubbly White 6-Pack, with The Zero Proof on the Bellini, and produced a blend called Amuse for which a percentage of each sale goes to The Abundance Setting, an organization founded by Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark to support women and mothers in hospitality.^[4],[13]

Blanc Slate won a World Alcohol Free Award for best wine alternative (also cited as best non-alcoholic wine alternative at the World Alcohol Free Awards). Proxies is served at fine-dining restaurants including the French Laundry, Alinea, and Gramercy Tavern. In a blind tasting at a Chicago wine bar, Big Red was set against The Prisoner and a natural Aglianico; more tasters chose Big Red as their favorite than any other bottle in the lineup.

The producer states it is endorsed by top chefs and sommeliers including Sean Brock, Dominique Crenn, and André Mack. Its work is described as having attracted the attention of fine-dining figures including Crenn and Mack.^[8]