Muri Drinks
(mur-ee) | Copenhagen
Muri Drinks is an innovative beverage producer based in Copenhagen, Denmark…
Founded in 2020 by Murray Paterson, a UK expat living in Copenhagen, Muri is pushing the realm of possibility in non-alcoholic drinks through fermentation, foraging, and blending. Muri is informed and inspired by the gastronomic community in Copenhagen, particularly the city’s expertise in fermentation techniques. Muri Drinks is obsessed with flavor and relentless in its pursuit of a quality beverage that is complex and deeply satisfying, with or without alcohol, and changing perceptions around the no- and low-alcohol space.
Originally from Northern Scotland, Murray left his first career as a corporate analyst to pursue his passion for drinks, beginning with his work with UK cideries and eventually ending up at Empirical Spirits in Copenhagen. Gaining essential experience as a distiller at Empirical, he was inspired by their innovative techniques and beverages that defy categorization. Branching out on his own in 2020, he founded Muri Drinks to bring his blend of traditional and innovative techniques to the world of non-alcoholic beverages.
Muri Drinks is extremely Copenhagen in its style and approach to drinks. Their method is a natural result of the gastronomic energy in Copenhagen, particularly the city’s accumulated expertise in fermentation. Ioakeim Goulidis, their head of research and production, worked previously in the Noma fermentation lab, soaking in their blend of precision and experimentation. Combined with Murray’s experience at Empirical Spirits, they have spent time at some of the city’s best beverage and fermentation companies, which informs the precision and innovation of their work at Muri Drinks.
Muri crafts naturally non-alcoholic beverages without the aid of dealcoholization —a process that can strip flavor as well as alcohol— or the addition of flavor or coloring agents. Although the beverage is inspired by wine, Murray didn’t want to create a drink that was merely imitating something else. Unlike other no- and low-alcohol brands, which start with a beverage and remove the alcohol from it, Muri is creating something wine-adjacent to “reimagine the wine occasion.” Muri is meant to be drunk when wine would otherwise be offered, so they are bottled in wine bottles to inspire customers to drink them as an aperitif, and especially with food.
Muri is exclusively made with natural ingredients of verified provenance and utilizes ancient techniques to craft their natural, non-alcoholic drinks. Each batch is hand-made in their Copenhagen workshop in limited runs; however, their experience over the years in producing each cuvée means there is also consistency in flavor and quality from one bottling to the next. In the same manner that a Champagne house has a style with its non-vintage bottling, Muri crafts distinct styles with quality and flavor consistency.
The Building Blocks of Muri Drinks
Fermentation
Fermentation is their starting point. Muri blends fermentations utilizing teas, juices, and foraged botanicals to create genre-bending beverages. They are not aspiring to make direct alcohol proxies; instead, they create innovative beverages that are every bit as satisfying as alcoholic versions; they just happen to be alcohol-free. To achieve this, they dig deep into lesser-known traditional fermentation techniques like kvass or kefir and apply them to a range of obscure, often foraged ingredients.
A defining factor in Muri’s unique “fermentation without alcohol approach” is their use of the yeast strain pichia kluyveri, a sauvignon blanc yeast strain that produces minimal alcohol during fermentation. For winemaking, this yeast is not enough; a winemaker has to use other yeasts in concert with it to achieve the desired alcohol level. For Muri, the careful use of pichia kluyveri allows them to explore traditional fermentation techniques and their complex flavors without producing significant alcohol.
Technique
Many brands rely on lots of ingredients to make liquids interesting, but Muri goes way further. Technique is their point of difference. Unable to utilize wild fermentation, as there is too much potential for alcohol development, Muri layers a series of very short fermentations to emulate the dynamics of long, wild fermentation. Murray Paterson’s background in cider is an influence here, inspired by the master cider makers he worked under, as well as by Empirical’s view that building a beverage is much like building flavor in a composed dish. Inspired by the world-class restaurants in Copenhagen, Muri approaches its beverages like a chef approaches composing their dish. Rather than simply making kombucha or an infusion, Muri uses specially cultivated yeasts, kefir grains, and a sourdough starter as separate cultures within the same drink to build flavor and complexity. They use techniques like dry carbonic maceration, wood smoking, and lacto-fermentation to boost flavor and texture.
Also, part of their technique that sets Muri apart is their use of botanicals, found through foraging or their own cultivation. They dry, blanch, and toast botanicals to extract their full range of flavor. Applying these fermentation techniques to a wide botanical array, they create short fermentations such as gooseberry “wine,” goldenrod kefir, caramel malt kvass, and smoked lacto-fermented rhubarb. All these techniques are part of a large toolbox utilized in their distinctive blending process.
Blending
The skill of blending is a foundational tool for team Muri, allowing them to create complex beverages without alcohol through layering flavors. Muri uses each layer of fermentation to build a wall of flavor, offering a complete drinking experience. “We look at the blends as a spectrum based on acidity,” explains founder Murray Paterson, who also uses certain fermentations for texture, mouthfeel, and funk. He aims to create a “revelatory moment” in each drink where all the separate fermentations, flavors, and acidities come together in a cohesive dynamism that is stimulating, satisfying, and food-friendly.
De Maison Selections is currently offering four expressions from Muri: Passing Clouds, Yamilé, Fade to Black, and a limited collaboration with Brooklyn’s The Four Horsemen.
Muri’s first release, Passing Clouds, is a groundbreaking sparkling cuvée of fermented gooseberries, quince kefir, jasmine tea, woodruff & geranium kvass that blends a series of short fermentations to achieve its fresh, sparkling profile. Great as an aperitif or an alternative to sparkling or white wine, Passing Clouds is dry but with multiple dimensions of flavors and a vinous funkiness. Complex, floral, and sparkling, it is reminiscent of skin-contact pét-nats.
Yamilé is an energetic, sparkling rosé cuvée of carbonic raspberry and gooseberry, fermented and smoked rhubarb, goldenrod, and pink peppercorn kefir. With a nose of overripe golden tomato and red fruit and a palate of salty smoke with gentle raspberry acidity, Yamilé rosé is a kaleidoscope of flavor. Yamilé can be used as a sparkling component in alcoholic or nonalcoholic cocktails.
Muri’s Fade to Black is a gently-sparkling red cuvée of fermented currants, chamomile kefir, and fig leaf & pine kvass. With a structure of juicy fruit and subtle tannins and a lactic acid and a floral softness, Fade to Black is delicious and wildly food-friendly, with an herbaceous and satisfying finish, like a refined, dry lambrusco.
The Four Horsemen, a Brooklyn-based, James Beard Award-winning wine bar and restaurant, collaborated with Muri to craft a glou-glou inspired red wine alternative with savory aromatics and a juicy palate featuring tart, dark fruit. Defined by Stevnsbaer sour cherries, bay leaf water kefir, ice-clarified tomato juice, and a trace amount of lacto-fermented beetroot, the cuvée is an ideal companion to a plate of food, and a progressive take on the traditional wine pairing.
The team at Muri is collaborative, thoughtful, and community-minded. For them, community and interpersonal care are more important than any individual beverage and are the foundation for what they do. For example, many of their ingredients are foraged by Paulinna (affectionately known as “The Witch”), a friend and botanical expert in the Copenhagen scene. Other botanicals, like their wild fig leaves, are gathered with love by Ioakeim’s father. Team Muri also works collaboratively with their friends and local Copenhagen chefs, like the Michelin-starred Restaurant Kadeau, to make special cuvées tailored to their cuisine. Muri also names drinks after their friends, such as their sparkling rosé Yamilé, in honor of a friend and Peruvian fermentation master who worked with them to create an incredible rosé expression. For Muri Drinks, creativity is nothing without the relationships and community of friends that make it all worth it. We couldn’t agree more and are grateful to tell their story in the United States, adding more friends and flavor possibilities to the conversation.
