The Unfulfilled Promise of Non-Alcoholic Wine: A Closer Look

The past ten years have been challenging for wine enthusiasts who love a good glass of wine with their meals. With the rise of initiatives like Dry January and Sober October, there’s a growing stigma against alcoholic beverages. This has seen an increase in offering of “healthy” or “skinny” wines, which are low in sugar, catering to the popular keto lifestyle trend. Some even suggest replacing wine with kombucha, a fermented tea known for its probiotic benefits, though it arguably lacks the enjoyment provided by a good vintage. The wine industry has faced a fairly rough patch – but this is just the start.

According to wine promoters and consultants, nonalcoholic wine is the next big thing. They claim that it will rescue the industry from health bodies like the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and several studies that caution against daily alcohol consumption. They believe this shift will appeal to health-conscious younger demographics and will help revive the grape cultivation industry against a backdrop of declining demand. Statistics reveal a nearly 25% increase in nonalcoholic wine sales between 2021 and 2022, alongside a nearly 14% drop in alcohol consumption among young people over the past two decades.

While this data may seem promising, it overlooks the true essence of wine – its rich history, cultural significance, and reasons for enjoyment. Nonalcoholic wine is certainly gaining traction, but it technically goes against the very definition of wine, which inherently contains alcohol. Without alcohol, it’s merely a variation of grape juice, often with unfavorable taste profiles.

The production of nonalcoholic wine involves complex, arguably unnecessary, industrial processes adding to time and cost as well as contributing to environmental implications, which is the last thing our planet needs amidst growing climate change crises. Two methods, vacuum distillation and reverse osmosis, involve heating the grape juice up to nearly human body temperature. The third popular method, spinning, separates the juice from its components, including alcohol, by sending it down a series of rotating cones.

Why does alcohol exist in the first place, you might wonder? This is because the process necessitates the fermentation of wine grapes to become actual wine. Only then can the alcohol be removed to create NA wine. Did I not forewarn you about the paradoxes?

The second concept to grasp? Nearly all of the taste, character, and “feel” of the wine is derived from the alcohol – replicating this requires some worrisome compromises. All the delicious components of wine are the result of fermentation, which transforms grape sugar into alcohol. If you remove the alcohol, you get something resembling wine, but it isn’t quite there; it’s more than grape juice but not fully wine. At best it’s bland, and at worst it’s bitter and off-putting (and yes, I’ve had too many), and that’s just the white wines. Making NA red wine is even harder, since red wines are generally heavier and have more alcohol to replace and more flavor to recover.

The scientific explanation for this involves esters, the compounds responsible for the wine’s flavor and aroma that are present in alcohol after fermentation. Mainly, they vanish when the alcohol is taken out. As a result, winemakers need to add components to the NA wine to restore its taste and texture. This includes using sugar for flavor and glycerol, a thick liquid commonly found in shaving cream and toothpaste, to mimic the texture.

How much sugar is involved, one of the top four culprits in the American diet (together with salt, fat, and cholesterol)? It largely depends on the style of wine and the kind of grape used, but for instance, Giesen, one of the biggest NA wine producers from New Zealand, makes a non-alcoholic riesling with 22 grams of sugar per serving. This is roughly a third more per serving compared to traditional riesling. Although it doesn’t make it any less “healthy” in my eyes, it’s indeed ironic.

It’s not surprising to see the complexities involved with wine. Fermentation and alcohol are the very reasons wine exists. In the pre-industrial era, long before pasteurization and modern preservation techniques, wine was a safe drink, consumed not for the intoxication, but to evade diseases like cholera, dysentery, and typhoid lurking in dirty water. Although our water is generally safe to drink, relishing a glass of chilled rosé on a warm summer afternoon is still preferred over plain water.

This is certainly not advocating reckless drinking or arguing against moderation. As Jon McPherson, a California winemaker wittily puts it, “Moderation isn’t complicated. It’s club soda with a lime twist.” The question is – How did we reach a point where the adoption of non-alcoholic (NA) wine, a moderation tactic, involves extensive use of technology and manufacturing?

The answer could be America’s penchant for easy scientific solutions for complicated problems. We switched to saccharin and aspartame from full-sugar drinks and convinced ourselves that consuming a meticulously crafted meatless burger would bless our hearts. Why not then approach wine without alcohol? It’s all about extending our life spans, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter if it would be easier to limit soda or cut back on beef. Where’s the fun in being sensible?

The non-alcoholic wine trend might be powered, at least partly, by this fanciful chase for longevity. Jeff Slankard, the wine and beer director for Barons Market, an upscale grocer in Southern California, notes that his stores selling the most non-alcoholic wine have the oldest average customer age. He reveals, “I was not expecting that as the shift towards less alcohol consumption is usually associated with the 35-and-under group. But it does make sense. Our older customers are very health-conscious.”

One final contradiction: No one, in any of the marketing literature for NA wine, claims that the stuff is actually better for us than real wine. Yes, it has fewer calories and no alcohol (dubious measures of healthiness, especially out of context), but anything beyond those limited points would run afoul of federal regulations. To claim broader benefits would require scientific studies and developing guidelines based on those studies. This is a process usually reserved for blockbuster drugs, not something to drink with dinner. Would that consumers understood that NA wine is not medicine.

The true believers will scoff at this, being true believers, but it’s possible to drink real wine, get low alcohol, and enjoy what you’re drinking. Hundreds and hundreds of options exist, and they have for years—and learning about them is as simple as a Google search. Know, too, that the amount of alcohol is listed on every bottle by law, so finding low-alcohol wines does not require a degree in winemaking. Most vinho verdes, a Portuguese white, are 9 percent alcohol or less. Riesling can be as low as 6 percent, and it’s even sweet for those who appreciate that. I drink rosés and whites from southwestern France, and the alcohol is about 10 percent. No, none of those are zero, but most of the wines in that list have close to one-third less alcohol than the typical California red. And best of all, they taste like wine and can be drunk with as much moderation as you please.

Finally, a little perspective: Aaron E. Carroll, who teaches at the Indiana University School of Medicine, wrote in an assessment of alcohol science that “15 desserts a day would be bad for you. This could lead to assertions that ‘there’s no safe amount of dessert.’ But it doesn’t mean you should never, ever eat dessert.” As it is with whipped cream, so let it be with wine.

About the Author: Chris Lehoux

Meet Chris Lehoux, an experienced wine connoisseur and dedicated blogger with a deep passion for all things wine-related. With years of expertise in the industry, Chris shares insightful wine reviews, valuable wine tasting tips, expert pairing advice, and captivating tales of vineyard visits. Join Chris on a journey through the world of wine, where every sip is an adventure waiting to be savored!