Consumer interest in low- and no-alcohol products has been expanding over the past few years, especially as part of a larger health and wellness movement worldwide. Campaigns like Sober for October and Dry January are flourishing almost everywhere.
Currently, beer is the leading category, but non-alcoholic wine has begun to catch up in terms of demand and production over the last decade.
Overall, it is difficult to imagine wine without alcohol, as it is an integral part of its taste, complexity, and texture. Nevertheless, there are some wonderful examples of this mysterious product, such as the alcohol-free Les Cocottes wine range, coming from Southern France.
It is a widespread misconception that non-alcoholic wines are little more than grape juice in a fancy bottle. This is not the case with most wines. Of course, it is a real challenge to remove alcohol from fermented grape juice without compromising the sensation of body, balance, typicity, and quality. To compensate for what is missing, producers sometimes have to add a usually very small amount of sugar or grape juice to round out the texture and the overall feel of the wine. The methods are highly technological and involve very expensive machinery.
To date, two main methods are used:
- Reverse Osmosis – The process begins with simple winemaking, where the winemaker harvests and presses the grapes, then ferments them in stainless steel tanks to convert the natural sugars of the grapes into alcohol. The result is essentially the same – wine with alcohol content. The next step is to extract water and alcohol from the wine using reverse osmosis with a machine that primarily separates the components that make up the liquid. The product of this process is a liquid containing only water and ethanol. The next stage is to remove the alcohol from the water using column distillers, which is a simple distillation process through heating. The alcohol evaporates and rises up the column, where it is then collected and set aside, leaving the winemaker with only the necessary water. The final step is to blend the cooled water with the wine, resulting in everything a regular wine would have – flavors, aromas, texture, and characteristics, but without the alcohol.
2. Vacuum Distillation – This is a more efficient and faster method for removing alcohol from wine, but it is not the best and uses the same basic principle of heating for its removal. Similar to the first method, the winemaker creates a traditional wine, which is heated to 78.3°C. This is the temperature at which ethanol boils, so the alcohol evaporates from the wine. Finally, the alcohol is collected and set aside, leaving a wine with little to no alcohol. Most winemakers prefer the first method because the second can affect the taste and texture of the final wine more.
To confuse you further, up until now we have introduced you to non-alcoholic and low-alcoholic wines, which are between 1.2-0%, but there are also wines with a low alcohol content between 5.5-10%.
These types of wines are produced in the traditional way, without special equipment or magic from the winemakers. As you know, ripe grapes produce grape juice rich in natural sugars, which later turns into alcohol during fermentation. To achieve lower alcohol, we need grapes with lower sugar content. This can be early-harvested unripe grapes or grapes from vineyards where leaves have been removed to slow down the plant's ability to produce sugar. The fermentation process done with this type of grape is much faster and can leave the final wine with an alcohol content of up to 5.5%. The producer can indicate the achieved alcohol volume but cannot label it as a low-alcohol wine, even though it has a much lower degree than traditional wines.
In conclusion, we can say that this category is one of the fastest-growing, which demonstrates many people's choice for a healthy lifestyle.
Cheers from the VIDA Wine & Spirits team!
