The Interview: Rachel Martin, Founder, Oceano Zero
/The newly released 2024 vintage of the Oceano Zero chardonnay and pinot noir are a masterclass in how to make dealcoholized wine. For founder Rachel Martin, this journey started five years ago when she first saw the writing on the wall about the traditional wine industry.
Martin was making wine at her winery in California specializing in cool climate pinot noirs and chardonnays. Covid had made an impact on her business, as it did to so many others in the wine and hospitality industry. Consumption was declining, restaurants were closing and the number of people visiting restaurants and ordering from the wine list just wasn’t the same.
Martin knew that to stay relevant she needed to pivot. The result of that strategic shift was moving into the non-alcoholic wine category and creating the first vintage of non-alcoholic Oceano Zero in 2022.
“The only interesting thing happening in the wine industry at that time was non-alcoholic wine,” she explained. “So I did my research.”
Martin realized what was missing from the existing options was fine wine.
“I'm a wine maker, wine producer, wine drinker and someone who wants to drink less alcohol. So, I am that customer. What would I want if I wanted a dealcoholized wine that gives me the wine experience minus the alcohol. And that's what we do at Oceano Zero.”
The first release was a small batch pinot noir followed by the release of both a pinot noir and a chardonnay the following year, all hand-picked and produced in the Oceano ecosystem and then dealcoholized using spinning cone technology. Both styles sold out to critical acclaim. The 2023 Oceano Zero Chardonnay was a big, juicy wine with all nuances of a coastal chardonnay, while the pinot noir was complex and layered with a fantastic weight and drinkability.
Martin knew there was still more opportunity to improve her wines when the emerging Solos technology arrived in the U.S. from Europe. Solos are experts in aroma recovery during the dealcoholization process, and are able to produce dealcoholized wines that preserve more of the natural flavours in the wine without losing as much volume as with spinning cone.
Copyright: © 2025 Cynthia Glassell
Oceano is one of the first fine wines to work with Solos dealcoholization in the United States.
“With spinning cone column, the wine goes through it twice. It's pulling. It's a more aggressive method than just pure vacuum distillation. We then follow that with Solos patented aroma extraction,” she explained. “The result is less water loss, less processing and then there's a higher fidelity of aromatics.”
The resulting 2024 vintage of Oceano Zero is even more impressive than the earlier releases. The cool climate style wines are subtly complex, perfectly balanced and have weight and substance without being over blown. They reflect the terroir of California, without hitting you over the head with sugar and additives.
“One of our vineyards is called Spanish Springs Vineyard. It's a mile and a half from the oceans, ancient seabed soils, it's super cool climate below the fog line, all that coastal fog, and it's giving this wine a certain characteristic,” Martin explains. “With Solos, we're able to really capture accurately all of that character in a dealcoholized wine. So [the new wines are] more Oceano than they were previously.”
In parallel to the development of her wines, Martin has also become a thought-leader in the industry. She’s led the development of the only non-alcoholic wine certification program in the world, wrote a textbook for it (available on Amazon) and continues to lead a dialogue around how important non-alcoholic wine options are to our future.
“There needs to be more market adoption and as quality grows there will be a greater representation of these products in the market because there'll be more acceptance by the consumer and the trade,” she explains. “The trade has really struggled with the quality of these products or the expectations or the understanding, you know, and that’s where the education piece comes in.”
Martin sees the future as full of options, where there’s room for everyone who wants to enter into the category.
“I think that it's good to have more dealcoholized wine in the market, at many different price points and that’s going to serve more people. Consumers need and deserve choice.”
For Rachel herself, she says the pivot didn’t fundamentally change what she’s doing or why.
“I’m just not in the alcohol industry anymore, I’m in the wine industry. Period. It's where I play. It's where I have joy. Where I have purpose. I absolutely love what I do, and love the fact that I can make delicious wines that are dealcoholized for people to enjoy.”
If you’re a wine lover and looking for a true wine experience with no alcohol, you can find the new Oceano Zero vintage at oceanowines.com.
