Is there a non alcoholic wine that Actually tastes like wine?
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A lot more people than ever before are choosing an alcohol-free or a ‘less alcohol’ lifestyle. It’s hard to go from having fun things to drink everywhere you turn, to feeling like you have nothing but sparkling water as an option. Luckily, the non-alcoholic drinks category has grown leaps and bounds since the early days of the pandemic and there’s now hundreds if not thousands of products to choose from whether that’s beer, wine or zero proof spirits.
Beer and spirits have been the winning categories, but people who love wine and really want to find a wine that ‘tastes like real wine’ have been the most disappointed. It’s the hardest of the liquids to craft as equal to its original form.
I have two approaches to this.
Firstly, there are non-alcoholic wines that taste like real wine if you’re able to accept it won’t be a perfect dupe. They lack the burn or bite of alcohol - and in fact, if you stop drinking real wine for an extended period of time, alcohol is the ONLY thing you can taste once you go back to it. It’s a huge part of the wine experience. But if you can just accept that this is the missing thing, and there’s a joy in pouring a liquid into a wine glass that looks like red wine, smells like red wine and almost tastes like it, then your mental battle is won. And there are lots of great wines to enjoy!
The second approach is a little bit more snobby. As a wine person, the thing I loved most (as do most professionals) is how the alcohol and the winemaker have coaxed a whole world of flavours out of a tiny little grape. It’s the most sophisticated of fruits. Outside of the alcohol though, people who love wine find the salinity of the mediterranean or the minerality of the Rhinegau as exciting as the tipsy feeling you get from the alcohol.
Now that we’re advancing even farther with dealcoholization technology, and post-dealcoholization aroma recovery, the ability for winemakers to recreate the essence of the original wine is starting to really take shape. There are wines like Zeronimo and Oceano that are 99% accurate to the real experience of wine. The lack of alcohol doesn’t matter, because they are elegant sophisticated liquids that deliver complexity, nuance and terroir. The quantity of these types of wines will grow in the future,
Whether you want these types of wines, or just something good from the grocery store, there are lots of options for non-alcoholic wine that tastes like real wine - and they are exactly what you’re looking for when socializing over food, curling up with a good book or enjoying a quiet evening.
