MURI

Founding. MURI is a Copenhagen-based producer of fermented non-alcoholic blends, founded in 2020 by Murray Paterson, a UK expat living in the city. The launch fell during the pandemic. Multiple accounts place the founding around 2020, with a June 2022 source dating it to roughly two years earlier and an October 2023 podcast to two and a half to three years prior. One June 2021 source names Murray Paterson and Samantha Hunt, both formerly of Empirical Spirits, as founders; other sources name Paterson as founder. Diego Paniagua is also credited as a founder of MURI.^[1],[2]

From concept to pivot. MURI was initially conceived as an alcoholic drink before pivoting to the non-alcoholic space. The founding approach drew on a chef-led method of building flavour from exceptional ingredients, many of them foraged, combined with fermentation techniques learned at Empirical Spirits.^[3]

Location. MURI is based in Copenhagen, with its production facility referred to as the Blendery. The producer's website places the Blendery in Nordhavn, Denmark, and elsewhere describes it as situated beside the harbour next to the fish market in Skudehavnen, where all production takes place including long ferments, blending, and experiments. A January 2025 podcast describes the brewery as located in an old fish smokery in Copenhagen that houses large smokers used in production. MURI launched in Copenhagen's culinary scene and can be found in Michelin-starred restaurants there.^[4],[5]

Murray Paterson — Founder. Murray Paterson is the founder of MURI. He spent most of his life in London before moving to Copenhagen, and worked corporate jobs including at JP Morgan in Canary Wharf before leaving to pursue a career in food and drink. He left finance to work in the UK cider industry in roles ranging from picking apples in orchards to import/export and actually making drinks, which is where he developed his interest in blending and fell in love with fermentation. He then moved to Copenhagen — approximately seven years before a March 2025 interview — to train as a distiller at Empirical Spirits, the company founded by Lars Williams, former head of Noma's test kitchen. Paterson was 45 years old as of the January 2025 podcast interview.

Murray Paterson — at Empirical. Paterson joined Empirical Spirits in Copenhagen after meeting founder Lars Williams at a tasting, despite having no distilling experience. There he first discovered koji and learned how powerful it could be in creating complex, layered flavors, later bringing the technique to MURI. A March 2022 source reports that at Empirical he learned from Lars Williams how to compose a drink analogously to a complex dish — from hundreds of components in varying proportions, many of them fermented. Paterson personally participates in foraging expeditions, including foraging woodruff for Passing Clouds.

Ioakeim Goulidis — Head of Research and Production. Ioakeim Goulidis serves as head of research and production at MURI and is responsible for research and product development. According to the producer, he is Murray Paterson's partner. Goulidis previously worked in the fermentation lab (Food Lab) at René Redzepi's Noma, where he learned the art of fermentation, and is described as having encyclopedic knowledge of fermentation types. A July 2024 source describes him as a co-founder or key collaborator, and an October 2023 podcast (which renders his name as Joachim Golidis) credits him as co-developer of MURI.^[6],[7]

Wider team. MURI describes itself as a small team of 8 people based in Copenhagen. An October 2023 podcast names Diego from the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastian; Yuki, former head brewer at Empirical Spirits; and Paulina, a forager who collects botanicals and herbs from the woods around Copenhagen. The producer's website credits a herbal expert named Paulinna who forages and supplies bundles of plants, including woodruff for Passing Clouds. MURI's production and R&D team came from Noma and Alchemist. The team is composed primarily of chefs, with Murray Paterson being the only non-chef, as a former distiller. Koji Rice Series 2 was developed by MURI's head of R&D, Alejandro, who took the blend in a tropical direction.^[3],[8]

Diego Paniagua — Founder. Diego Paniagua is a founder of MURI. According to the producer, his favorite tipple includes vermouth, which inspired the creation of New Forms.

Naturally non-alcoholic by design. MURI's products are naturally non-alcoholic by design and are never produced with alcohol that is later removed. The producer states it does not use reverse osmosis, dealcoholization, or the addition of flavor or coloring agents. Instead the drinks are built from the ground up as non-alcoholic beverages, using special yeast cultures that do not create alcohol together with carefully limited sugar levels, time, and temperature to ferment without producing more than trace amounts of alcohol.^[9]

Not imitating wine. MURI intentionally does not attempt to replicate wine, positioning its blends as sharing acidity, complexity, and food-pairing qualities with wine but distinct from it. It blends its drinks to have the same complexity, acidity, and structure as wine, but with surprising flavour combinations rather than imitating alcoholic beverages. The producer's approach balances acidity with sweetness and tannin with texture to create drinks that pair with food. The drinks are designed for the dinner table as a non-imitative alternative to wine.^[9],[10]

Category label. MURI describes itself as a complex, non-alcoholic, fermented drink designed to fit the wine occasion, and uses the term 'wine alternative' as its working category label. In an August 2023 interview, Paterson described the drinks as 'fermented blends' and deliberately avoided positioning them as wine alternatives, substitutes, proxies, or mimics. A March 2025 source reports MURI positions its drinks as category-less rather than as wine alternatives. A July 2024 German source refers to a portfolio of six drinks called Proxies, positioned as premium wine alternatives.^[11],[12]

A kitchen, not a brewery. MURI hires chefs rather than traditional brewers to run production more like a kitchen than a brewery, because the workflow to process ingredients resembles a kitchen. Its blending philosophy is derived from cider-making — blending different fermented apple varieties — and from Empirical's approach of fractionalising through distillation and blending components together. The producer's R&D uses the internal benchmark of a 'what the fuck moment' — a sense of surprise, moreishness, and dynamic layered flavor — as the ultimate test.^[5]

Nordic gastronomy and music. MURI draws inspiration from Nordic gastronomy and Copenhagen's strong fermentation expertise. The producer draws significant musical inspiration, naming many of its drinks after records from the club scene. Paterson grew up in London during the heyday of its dance culture, which the producer says shaped his worldview and MURI's identity.^[13],[14]

Bottling for the wine occasion. MURI bottles its cuvées in standard 0.75-litre wine bottles to intuitively signal the wine occasion context to customers and to inspire them to drink the beverages as an aperitif and especially with food.^[7]

The singles lineup. MURI's current singles lineup consists of seven products: Passing Clouds, Fade To Black, MURI x The Four Horsemen, Yamilé, Sherbet Daydream, Uzume, and Koji Rice Series 1. Earlier accounts document the range as it grew: a March 2022 source reports three cuvées launched with a fourth planned for April 2022; a June 2022 source names three blends (Passing Clouds, Nuala, and Yamilé); a July 2024 source describes a portfolio of six drinks; and a March 2025 podcast puts the current range at six drinks. Passing Clouds was MURI's first blend.^[3],[15]

Styles. MURI specializes in tea- and berry-based sparkling non-alcoholic beverages. The lineup spans sparkling whites (Passing Clouds), sparkling rosés (Sherbet Daydream, Uzume, Yamilé, Paradis), sparkling and still reds (Fade To Black; the still MURI x The Four Horsemen), and koji-rice cuvées (Koji Rice Series 1 and 2). Nuala is described as MURI's answer to a non-alcoholic red wine alternative.^[14]

Limited editions and Test Kitchen. Beyond the core singles, MURI produces limited editions and collaboration releases. New Forms is a limited-edition bitter red aperitivo made from fermented Danish Stevnsbær cherries, released as part of MURI's Test Kitchen series and inspired by vermouth. Koji Rice Series 1 is a limited edition released on March 27, 2024, planned as a three-expression series, each expression completely different in style; Koji Rice Series 2 is a limited edition of only 500 bottles. Paradis is a limited-edition, one-off sparkling rosé. The MURI × ESSE series (The Beginning, The Middle, The Finale) and MURI × Kadeau: Paradisbakkerne are further collaboration releases.^[16]

MURI builds its blends by treating and fermenting each component separately before combining them, a blending step identified as the core technique that distinguishes its products. A January 2025 podcast describes the drinks as typically having four or five different components, usually base fermentations including wine, water kefir, kvass, and amazake made from koji fermentation, with teas and fruit juices used as dilution agents to bring the final ABV below 0.5%. A March 2022 source frames this as building complex cuvées layer by layer from numerous elaborately produced, partly short-fermented base drinks — kvass, juices, teas, and water kefir — in which additional ingredients are macerated. A 2021 source details a trio of layered fermentation techniques: the low-alcohol yeast Pichia kluyveri for tropical notes, water kefir grains for sweetness and balance, kvass for mouthfeel and depth, and a kombucha SCOBY for acidity, with ABV kept below 0.5% by managing sugar and fermentation times and by using a wine yeast that does not survive above 3% ABV.^[5],[10]

Non-alcohol-producing yeast fermentation. MURI uses special wine yeast cultures that do not produce alcohol to fuel fermentations. A March 2025 source notes the producer uses a wine yeast that produces sauvignon blanc-style flavours without producing alcohol. An October 2023 podcast describes a highly acidic base made by inoculating a sour fruit such as gooseberry with a wine yeast (rendered 'piquet clovery') to make a gooseberry wine, paired with a water kefir component providing body and sweetness. Passing Clouds ferments gooseberries with Pichia kluyveri yeast before enrichment with organic gooseberry juice; its White Currant Wine component ferments white currant juice from a farmer named Niels in Thy with a special yeast into a non-alcoholic white currant wine. Paradis ferments white currants with a special wine yeast.^[3]

Water kefir. MURI uses water kefir grains to provide body, sweetness, and balance, often as the backbone of a blend. Applications recur across the range:^[5]

• Passing Clouds — a quince kefir made by grinding fresh quince, infusing it in water, and fermenting with water kefir grains, producing an aromatic liquid with lactic creaminess and slight acidity that serves as the backbone
• Sherbet Daydream — a juniper water kefir provides the backbone of the blend
• MURI x The Four Horsemen — a green peppercorn (bay leaf) water kefir
• Koji Rice Series 1 — a beechwood-smoked lavender water kefir
• Fade To Black — a chamomile kefir
• Paradis — a blackberry leaf and linden flower water kefir
• MURI × ESSE: The Beginning — a water kefir scented with blackberry leaves
• MURI × ESSE: The Middle — a vibrant lovage kefir
• One sparkling rosé — a pink peppercorn water kefir in which the peppercorns are blanched from cold seven times to remove harshness, in the same way garlic is blanched for a purée

Kvass. MURI makes kvass, a bread beer-style ferment, by steeping grain (roasted or caramel malt) in hot water without boiling and inoculating with a sourdough starter, which produces minimal alcohol. In Passing Clouds the caramel malt is inoculated with sourdough starter and infused with geranium and foraged woodruff to lend autolytic, toasty-brioche notes reminiscent of Champagne; the producer states the kvass element was developed to pursue the brioche flavour common in champagne. Fade To Black contains a pine needle kvass.^[17]

• Passing Clouds — a geranium kvass for structure, depth, and brioche notes
• Fade To Black — a pine kvass

Koji, amazake and sake-style fermentation. MURI grows koji mould on cooked rice to produce sake-like, amazake components that are blended with other ingredients, a process inspired by sake and by amazake, the non-alcoholic cousin of Japanese sake. The Koji Rice Series is made using a three-day koji fermentation in which koji spores inoculate steamed rice, converting starches to sugars and developing umami. Koji Rice Series 1 grows koji on steamed rice, then mixes with water and ferments with a cultivated yeast. Koji Rice Series 2 inoculates steamed jasmine rice with Aspergillus oryzae and ferments the rice for three days in a koji nursery.

• Koji Rice Series 1 — koji-fermented rice wine, finished with mahleb and smoked lavender kefir
• Koji Rice Series 2 — koji rice with shiso and chamomile flowers
• MURI × ESSE: The Middle — koji amazake

Carbonic maceration. MURI adapts carbonic maceration, traditionally used in natural winemaking, for its non-alcoholic blends. Fresh fruit is sealed inside a CO₂-rich tank with no oxygen and no added yeast, causing the berries to ferment from the inside out, producing fruit that is intensely jammy, floral, and aromatic without cooked or stewed character. The carbonic maceration technique used in Yamilé was taught to MURI by Yamilé Abad, whom Paterson describes as the most knowledgeable person on fermentation he has ever met.^[17],[18]

• Uzume — one of three fermentation techniques applied to strawberries
• Yamilé — carbonic-macerated raspberries
• MURI × ESSE: The Finale — carbonic maceration of green Reine Claude plums
• New Forms context (Test Kitchen) — a carbonic raspberry cocktail was served at the dinner experience

Lacto-fermentation. MURI applies lactic acid fermentation to vegetables and fruit. Lacto-fermented beetroot features in MURI x The Four Horsemen; lacto-fermented rhubarb is among the components MURI cites; Uzume applies lacto-fermentation as one of three strawberry ferments; and MURI × ESSE: The Finale treats its plums in part through lacto-fermentation.

• MURI x The Four Horsemen — lacto-fermented beetroot
• Uzume — lacto-fermentation of strawberries
• MURI × ESSE: The Finale — lacto-fermentation of green Reine Claude plums

Smoking. MURI operates its own smokery, located in an old fish smokery housing large smokers, and smokes ingredients such as vanilla over beechwood. Smoking is one of its core flavor-building techniques.^[19]

• Uzume — vanilla gently smoked over beechwood
• Koji Rice Series 1 — lavender smoked over beechwood before use in the kefir
• Yamilé — smoked rhubarb, smoked in the in-house smokery
• MURI × ESSE: The Middle — dried smoked mussels from ESSE's dashi stock

Cold brewing and tea infusion. MURI uses cold brewing with jasmine tea. In Passing Clouds, the Jasmine Tea Infusion uses sencha green tea aromatised with jasmine flowers from Grasse in the South of France, cold-infused to preserve floral aroma while extracting only a small amount of tannins and no bitterness. Passing Clouds is the only MURI product to contain caffeine, due to the tea in the blend.

Borrowed culinary techniques: fat-washing, enfleurage, ice clarification, cryo-filtration, blanching. MURI applies a suite of restaurant-kitchen techniques. Fat-washing adds fat to the blend in liquid form, which is then chilled so it solidifies and can be strained off, leaving an aromatic liquid; the producer notes it can only use fat-washing on a tiny scale. Enfleurage presses botanicals into softened butter over several days to capture delicate aromatics before that butter is used to fat-wash. Ice clarification and cryo-filtration are used to produce clarified liquids such as tomato water; blanching is used to remove harshness. Other techniques cited across the range include pickling and blanching.^[20]

• MURI × Kadeau: Paradisbakkerne — fat-washed with a wild rose butter (used roughly two years before 2025)
• Paradis — enfleurage of wild rose and blackened bergamot into butter, then fat-washing the blend
• MURI × ESSE: The Beginning — fat-washed with butter infused with wild rose petals
• MURI × ESSE: The Middle — a browned butter and kombu fat wash
• MURI x The Four Horsemen — ice-clarified tomato water and ice clarification
• Uzume — ice-clarified tomato wine
• New Forms — filtered through spent quince solids from Passing Clouds so natural pectins add body
• Cryo-filtration — cited by Paterson as a production technique, e.g. cryo-filtered tomato water in the Four Horsemen collaboration

Enzymatic browning (blackening). MURI blackens ingredients through enzymatic browning, a process similar to how black garlic is made, to develop deeper, more intense profiles. Paradis blackens bergamot this way. New Forms uses blackened bergamot, which contributes an umami character. MURI × ESSE: The Finale blackens plums through low-temperature aging.

Oak barrels. An August 2021 source reports that MURI Drinks produces blended non-alcoholic beverages composed of multiple fermented drinks, using oak barrels in production.^[21]

Foraged botanicals. MURI sources most of its wild botanical ingredients by foraging them directly, employing a forager and also foraging from the woods around Copenhagen; foraged botanicals are picked year-round, with the busiest period running from May to September, and are dried for use.^[5],[22]

• Woodruff (Galium odoratum) — foraged for Passing Clouds from a forest near Sorø, Denmark, where it grows as ground cover through summer; supplied by a herbal expert named Paulinna; fills the blendery with aromas of freshly cut hay and marzipan
• Douglas fir needles — foraged from woods near Lyngby, Denmark, infused into a vinegar pickle liquor for Sherbet Daydream
• Nobilis pine cones — foraged from the Paradisbakkerne woods on Bornholm for the Kadeau collaboration, pickled by Kadeau before infusion
• Linden flowers and blackberry leaves — foraged/picked outside MURI's HQ for MURI × ESSE: The Beginning and used in Paradis
• Wild roses — foraged for butter infusions in Paradis and the ESSE and Kadeau collaborations
• Goldenrod — used in Yamilé

Berry & fruit bases. MURI's blends are built heavily on Danish berries and fruit, with plans to look to South America, Africa, and Asia for new inspiration beyond Danish berries.^[8]

• Berries — sourced from a family farm in Jutland run by a farmer named Niels
• White currants — from a farmer named Niels in Thy, on the west coast of Denmark (Passing Clouds White Currant Wine, and the base of Paradis)
• Quince — from a small-scale farmer named Eva on the island of Møn, about one hour south of Copenhagen (Passing Clouds quince kefir)
• Stevnsbær sour cherries — the base of New Forms and used in MURI x The Four Horsemen
• Green Reine Claude plums — from the Danish island of Lilleø, for MURI × ESSE: The Finale
• Gooseberries — a sour-fruit base fermented with wine yeast; used in Passing Clouds and MURI × ESSE: The Beginning

Vegetable & savory components. MURI incorporates vegetable and savory elements to build umami and structure. Ice-clarified or cryo-filtered tomato water/wine recurs across Uzume, MURI x The Four Horsemen, and MURI × ESSE: The Middle; lacto-fermented beetroot appears in the Four Horsemen collaboration; and yoghurt whey lends creaminess to Uzume. A blend made from onions, carrots, and peas was created for the dinner experience, paired with a dish of the same ingredients. New Forms adds bitter cinchona bark and resinous juniper; the producer has also experimented with insects, including ants for acidity.^[11],[23]

Botanical & floral infusions. Floral and herbal infusions run through the range, contributing aromatic lift and perfume. Green shiso is fermented separately with pichia yeast and macerated fresh in Koji Rice Series 2; jasmine, geranium, and woodruff perfume Passing Clouds; chamomile and fig leaf feature in Fade To Black; mahleb (Prunus mahaleb cherry pit) provides a warming undertone in Koji Rice Series 1; and muira puama bark and kombu appear in the ESSE collaborations.

Production standards. All MURI blends are small batch and produced entirely in-house, with everything from fermenting and smoking fruit to bottling and shipping happening under one roof. The producer describes its products as 'clean label' — no sulphites, preservatives, additives, or shortcuts. All ingredients are organic except for herbs and fruits foraged from nature. All bottles are pasteurized, which the producer states makes them safe for pregnant individuals, and all bottles from Summer 2025 onward have a 3-year shelf life when stored in a cool, dry place. Passing Clouds is carbonated to 2.5 bar. All MURI singles are alcohol-free and vegan, with the exceptions of Uzume and Yamilé, which are not suitable for vegans.^[8]

Producer character. MURI's blends are designed with the complexity, acidity, and structure of wine but with surprising flavour combinations rather than imitation, balancing acidity with sweetness and tannin with texture so the drinks pair with food. The range is described as tea- and berry-based and sparkling, drawing on Nordic gastronomy. Across the singles the palette runs from bright, floral sparkling whites to savoury, umami-driven still reds.^[10],[24]

Serving context. MURI's drinks are designed for the dinner table as a non-imitative alternative to wine, and are bottled in wine bottles to be drunk as an aperitif and especially with food. Individual blends carry specific pairings: Passing Clouds with oysters, spicy Asian salads, and ceviche; Sherbet Daydream with oysters, raw or cured seafood, and light canapés; Uzume with lobster, shellfish, and summer salads; MURI x The Four Horsemen with duck, root vegetables, or Toulouse sausage; Koji Rice Series 1 with crunchy Thai salads, creamy desserts, and Basque cheesecake; and Fade To Black with steak tartare or grilled meats.^[6],[25]

Dinner experience. MURI hosted a food and drink pairing dinner experience over three evenings in its tasting room, featuring off-menu pairings designed to blur the line between glass and plate. New Forms was first tested at MURI's first tasting dinner, held in August 2025. Cooking was done on a yakitori grill set up outside the tasting room rather than in a conventional kitchen. Pours included a brand-new vermouth alongside a house-made fermented tonic, a sparkling bottle fat-washed with wild rose butter, a carbonic raspberry cocktail, and a blend made from onions, carrots, and peas paired with a dish of the same ingredients.^[23]

In cocktails. MURI blends are used as cocktail components. A 'Banana Split' was built with homemade banana spirit, cold brew coffee, MURI Koji Rice Series 1, and MURI Passing Clouds. A 'Strawberry Daydream' was made with fresh strawberry juice, simple syrup, and Sherbet Daydream. At POPL, Noma's burger restaurant, MURI features in two cocktails — one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic — with Passing Clouds used as a topping in POPL's non-alcoholic Red Spritz.^[26],[27]

Restaurant Kadeau. MURI × Kadeau: Paradisbakkerne was the first ever MURI collaboration, released in 2021 with Restaurant Kadeau. It was made with Nobilis pine cones foraged from the Paradisbakkerne forest on Bornholm, which Kadeau pickled before MURI infused them into the blend; the pickled cones tasted of aromatic crisp apples. The blend was fat-washed with a wild rose butter. Sherbet Daydream evolved from this 2022 collaboration bottle, using Kadeau's signature pickled pine as a point of inspiration.^[28]

The Four Horsemen. MURI x The Four Horsemen is a collaboration with The Four Horsemen, a Brooklyn, New York wine bar and restaurant described as James Beard Award-winning and owned by LCD Soundsystem. It was developed with the restaurant's beverage director Justin Chearno (rendered Chernow in one podcast), a figure in the natural wine community. Murray Paterson visited the restaurant with Chearno during development; the collaboration was initiated in November 2023 when the two met there, and launched in 2024. The producer states the final bottles were delivered to the restaurant the day after Justin Chearno passed away in August 2024. The result is a still red conceived as more 'wine-adjacent' than MURI's typical blends, intended for non-drinking guests at the wine bar.

Anne-Sophie Pic. Uzume was released in 2024 as a collaboration with French chef Anne-Sophie Pic, described by MURI as the world's most decorated female chef with 12 Michelin stars across her restaurants globally, together with her Chief Executive Sommelier Paz Levinson. It took approximately 2.5 to 3 years of development, during which MURI visited Maison Pic in Valence multiple times to fine-tune the flavours. Pic paired it with a simple tomato and burrata salad.

Restaurant ESSE. MURI collaborated with Eva Baumgartner, Beverage Director at Restaurant ESSE in Copenhagen, to develop a non-alcoholic pairing menu, resulting in three expressions: The Beginning, The Middle, and The Finale. The Beginning functions as a non-alcoholic alternative to Champagne at the start of a pairing menu; The Middle, inspired by the Canadian tomato-and-clam blend Clamato, uses spent smoked mussels leftover from ESSE's dashi stock; and The Finale accompanies the dessert course, built around green Reine Claude plums.^[29]

Restaurant Odette. Paradis was created as a limited-edition, one-off collaboration with 3-Michelin-star Restaurant Odette in Singapore, served as an apéritif during their month-long pop-up at Tivoli in Copenhagen in September 2025.^[20]

Koan. MURI developed Koji Rice Series 2 as a special edition for Koan, a two-Michelin-star Korean-Danish restaurant in Copenhagen, with release planned around Easter (as of January 2025). Restaurant Koan pairs it with a milky oolong soufflé with kelp ice cream.^[5]

Weingut Jaunegg (planned). As of January 2025, MURI was planning a collaboration with Austrian winery Weingut Jaunegg, which has a vineyard called Murray, to create a terroir-driven exploration of a one-kilometre by one-kilometre area featuring peach trees, apricots, flowers, and vines.^[5]

Studio Soriano. MURI collaborated with Studio Soriano, a Copenhagen design studio that specializes in upcycled materials such as old tarpaulin.^[30]

Feinschmecker (2025). MURI won the prize for best non-alcoholic drink at the 2025 Feinschmecker award gala in Hamburg. The producer states it was the first ever prize the event gave for 'alkoholfreier Wein' (non-alcoholic wine). Murray Paterson accepted the award on behalf of the MURI team.^[31]

Viinilehti (2023). Muri Nuala 2021 was selected as Viinilehti's best non-alcoholic beverage of 2023, praised for its berry-fresh and aromatic flavor profile.

Distribution. MURI distributes through natural wine distributors in each country, including Sager & Wine in Hackney, London. It is available in most European countries, in New York in the United States, and in Singapore.^[3]