Buyer’s Guide to Vintages February 1st Release

Vintages Guide February 1st: No/Low from Fad to Juggernaut, and Best (alcoholic) Wines from the February 1 Release
By John Szabo MS, with notes from Sara d’Amato, and Michael Godel

Amidst the many challenges facing the wine industry — climate crisis, dropping consumption, competition from other recreational drugs and alcoholic drinks — one segment is booming: no- and low-alcohol wines, or simply “No/Low” in industry parlance.

Non-alcoholic wines by definition have had their alcohol lowered to less than 0.5% ABV, while low alcohol wine is variously defined in different jurisdictions as containing anything less than about 8% or 9% ABV.

What started out as a niche fad a couple of years ago, the no/low “movement” has now moved past even trend status to be a real and serious segment of the industry, growing by volume and value faster than any other segment. The occasional, or even exclusive consumption of no/low wines has become a way of life for many ”sober curious” people across the country, even those who still love to enjoy a glass or two of fully alcoholic wine from time to time.

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Several forces are driving the growth, not least of which was the World Health Organization’s declaration in 2023 that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, followed swiftly by a change in guidelines from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

The previous guidelines suggested limiting alcohol to no more than two standard drinks per day or ten per week for women, and three per day and fifteen per week for men. The current guidelines present a continuum of risk and suggest that the risk of alcohol-related harm begins to increase when consuming more than two standard drinks per week, which is considered low risk. (Keep in mind that “risk” in these guidelines includes not just diseases, but things like injury to oneself and others. There is an equal mountain of evidence showing that moderate regular consumption of wine has positive health benefits, even if you still might stub your toe.)

The movement is also driven by the broad, harder-to-measure cultural shift toward wellness, and initiatives like Dry January or Sober October, and stricter drinking-and-driving laws (many countries have zero alcohol tolerance).

What is clearly measurable is the decline in volume of wine sales, especially at the low end of the price spectrum, amidst the spike in the sales of non-alcoholic (NA) wines. And NA wine sales are expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 7.9% between 2024 and 2030, reaching nearly 4% of the total wine market by 2027, according to Grand View Research, an India & U.S. based market research company. And no-alcohol products are leading the growth over low-alcohol.

Not Either-Or

It’s not, however, uniquely a neo-prohibitionist or teetotaller movement. According to Nielsen, about three quarters of people who purchase non-alcoholic beverages also purchase drinks with alcohol. These are consumers looking for a lower alcohol (and possibly calorie) wine to have, say, on a weeknight, or when they have to get behind the wheel of a car, or those trying to lower their overall weekly alcohol consumption without giving up the ritual of popping a cork.

Savvy restaurants have also picked up on the movement, offering elaborate mocktail menus alongside cocktails, and also including no/low alcohol categories on their wine lists. Even just a decade ago, zero alcohol options in most restaurants consisted of mineral water, soft drinks and juices, and perhaps a Shirley Temple.

How Do They Taste?

For those who still enjoy fully alcoholic wines, the trouble with the no-alcohol category is how the products taste. Alcohol (ethanol) is the most abundant of the volatile compounds in wine, and when in lower concentrations or absent altogether, many aspects of the taste experience are affected, not least of which is reduced intensity of aromas and flavor, as well as mouthfeel (body), and more acute perception of acidity and astringency.

For these reasons, non-alcoholic wines lean heavily into sugar as a substitute for alcohol to round out texture and increase aromas and flavours. Though sugar, for some, is almost as bad as alcohol.

Also challenging is the fact that the various techniques used to fully or partially remove alcohol from wine have the unfortunate side-effect of stripping out desirable aroma and flavour compounds, the ones painstakingly created through careful farming and winemaking.

The Value Equation

Then, there’s also the value equation: winegrowing is an expensive business — it costs a lot to produce quality wine. And removing the alcohol one worked so hard to create is also a costly process, resulting in an even higher-priced but lesser quality product. At least the taxes are lower. If you’re looking for value, I’d suggest any one of the dozens of craft sodas and tonics that have come on the market in the last few years — they are far less expensive and quite often more enjoyable than de-alcoholised wine. (Non-alcoholic spirits are the greatest scam, essentially flavoured water, while the most successful products are in the bitters/amaro/vermouth category. Take Campari, for example, in which bitters contribute flavour while sugars provide balancing mouthfeel — but that’s another article.

The good news is that technology is evolving rapidly, and the quality of no/low wines has risen sharply in the last couple of years. There are several stages of production at which alcohol can be lowered or removed, as well as multiple techniques. Each has advantages and disadvantages.

In the Vineyard

Starting in the vineyard, viticultural practices such as removing leaves (which photosynthesize sugars), or cranking up the irrigation before harvest (thus adding water to berries and diluting sugars) will lower the concentration of fermentable sugars in grapes before they’re even converted into alcohol. Growth regulators and products that reduce photosynthetic activity can also be used. At best, these techniques can reduce the alcohol level in the finished wine, but they cannot produce non-alcoholic wine.

One pioneer of canopy manipulation to lower sugar concentration and alcohol is John Forrest in Marlborough, New Zealand. “We’ve perfected a delicious, full-flavoured wine by slowing the grape plant’s ability to make sugar, but not its ability to make flavour. And it’s all done in the vineyard, no chemistry tricks or genetic engineering wizardry here,” he writes. His sauvignon blanc is certainly respectable, and registers just 9.5% ABV.

During Fermentation

During fermentation, researchers and winemakers are exploring the use of less “efficient,” non-saccharomyces (NS) yeast strains, genetically modified strains, or naturally selected yeasts to convert sugar into alcohol. Some NS yeast strains produce less alcohol from the same amount of sugar, or divert carbon metabolism to other pathways, lowering ethanol production without seriously affecting wine quality. But again the technique is limited to lowering finished alcohol, by up to about 3%, not eliminating it altogether.

Post Fermentation

The only way to produce fully non-alcoholic wines (with less than 0.5% ABV) is to use one of several physical de-alcoholising techniques on the finished (fully alcoholic) product. These involve either the separation by membrane of alcohol and other wine components (nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, evaporative perstraction, and pervaporation), or thermal distillation (vacuum distillation and spinning cone column).

Sparing you the technical details, none of these are perfect. Issues range from changes in how the products taste, to high energy use and waste. But I’m guessing that it’s the taste of de-alcoholised wines that is probably most important to consumers. The reality is that all these techniques remove a certain amount of the good stuff along with alcohol, a bit of a baby-and-bathwater scenario.

One of the most clever products that I’ve come across is a sparkling non-alcoholic wine from Germany called Bolle that uses several techniques to achieve a flavourful, zero alcohol product. First, a normal, alcoholic base wine is produced. It’s then distilled in a vacuum at low temperatures to separate and remove the alcohol. Fresh grape must is then added back along with a selected strain of yeast that has a very low conversion rate of sugar into alcohol, that is, most of the sugar is consumed by the yeast but very little alcohol is produced as a by-product. The resulting non-alcoholic sparkling wine has the complex flavours and aromas of fermented grapes but without alcohol.

Non-Alcoholic Sparkling: The Most Successful Style category

And sparkling wines are, in my view, generally the most successful style of de-alcoholised wine, since carbon dioxide does the job that alcohol usually does in helping to bring aromatic compounds to your nose. This also means that less sugar is required in the finished product (another aroma carrier), making them typically drier than still wines. And they’re also usually produced from relatively low-potential alcohol (low sugar) grapes to begin with, meaning less alcohol needs to be removed. Finally, CO2 also enhances mouthfeel and refreshment, and there’s something very familiar about sparkling non-alcoholic drinks, which makes them the easiest starting point in the no/low category.

For still white wines, I find that aromatic varieties work best. Although some of the fragrant and flavourful molecules will be lost in the de-alcoholising process, there are still enough around to make the drink interesting. And like sparkling wines, many aromatic varieties such as riesling and sauvignon blanc are naturally light bodied, crisp and high acid, meaning that the alcohol will be less acutely missed, than, say, it would be in a lush, full-bodied oak-aged chardonnay stripped of its alcohol. Remember that riesling from the Mosel in Germany is one of the original low-alcohol wines at around 7% to 8% ABV, as it has been for centuries.

The Trouble with Red Wines

Red wines are problematic for several reasons. They are generally harvested riper to achieve more flavour complexity, which means more alcohol has to be removed. They also have naturally occurring tannins, extracted from grape skins (also where the colour comes from), which gives that mouth-puckering sensation of astringency. The glycerous texture of alcohol is very helpful in reducing that perception, and in its absence, there’s really only added sugar left to do the job (and using less extractive winemaking techniques). Thus, most de-alcoholised red wines, perhaps counterintuitively, have more sugar than their white counterparts.   

There is yet surely much room for improvement in the no/low category. Producers and researchers will continue to refine techniques to meet the needs and acceptance of consumers, given how lucrative the market has become. Many consumers, for now, appear willing to trade some sensory pleasure for the perceived benefits of going no/low.

A Note on Calorie and Sugar Labelling, and Best Before Dates

De-alcoholised wines usually have nutrition labels that provide useful information such as sugar content and calories per serving (you can safely assume that you won’t get enough nutrients from de-alcoholised wines to meet your recommended daily intake). But be sure to read the label carefully. There’s no standard serving size – in my most recent tasting I saw serving sizes vary from 100mls to 125mls, 188mls, 250mls and 375ml. To accurately compare calories and sugar between products, the serving sizes have to be made equal – time to dust off skills at finding common denominators for your fractions. It seems that even in the non-alcoholic realm the wine industry has to make things as complicated as possible for consumers.

The other frustrating thing is that most non-alcoholic wines don’t list a vintage. So, unless you’re good at reading lot codes on bottles, you’ll have no idea how old the product is. And these products are not designed to age. Some do have a best-before date, so just as you would when buying milk, choose the bottles with the longest time to expiry — old, oxidized, non-alcoholic wine is not much fun to drink.

On the flipside, non-alcoholic wines are not subject to Canada’s antiquated liquor distribution laws. You can buy from any source across the country and get products delivered to your home.

The following recommendations are all from the portfolio of an Alberta-based importer called Soft Crush, the sister company of Crush Imports, specializing in the fully alcoholic stuff. Proprietor Mark Kuspira tasted more than 400 products to assemble his portfolio, and these are the best of his best of the over two dozen that I tasted.

See the non-alcoholic buyer’s guide below the Vintages guide for the best bottlings I’ve found so far. But first, the stronger stuff. Remember the tax holiday is over on February 15.

Buyer’s Guide February 1st: White Wines

Esporão Bico Amarelo 2023, Alentejo, Portugal
$11.30, FWP TRADING INC
Michael Godel – A truly dry and savoury Vinho Verde with an indelible stamp of the region. Value for your money is off the charts.
John Szabo – A mix of traditional Vinho Verde varieties, this is easy, crunchy, refreshing, infinitely drinkable white wine at a sharp and attractive price. At 11.5% alcohol declared it comes across as light and lithe, fluid and saliva inducing, a perfect sipping wine for a summer’s afternoon, or just about any afternoon. Drink as young as possible.
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John Szabo’s Buyer’s Guide to Non-alcoholic Wine: Sparkling

Zeronimo Sparkling Select, Austria
$24.50 (375 ml) SØBR Market
There’s quite substantial flavour intensity on offer in this de-alcoholised sparkling wine from Austria, made from pinot blanc, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc in a very dry and crisp style. Effervescence is prominent but not overly aggressive, enough to firm and freshen up the citrus and green apple flavours. Length, too, is well above the mean in the category. A leading producer. (<0.5% ABV, 25 g/l sugar, 14 calories per 100 ml.)

Bolle Blanc de Blancs “Twice Fermented” Non-Alcoholic Sparkling, Germany
$50 (seeking importer)
A unique facet to Bolle’s production process is a secondary fermentation, but not so much in the traditional sense. After the base wine — already of modest alcohol level — is de-alcoholized fully using vacuum distillation, grape must is added back along with a yeast that ferments the sugars while producing only trace amounts of alcohol as a by-product. The net result is a sparkling wine with less than 0.5% ABV, but with some of the complexity of a fermented (alcoholic) wine, also with more body and texture than the mean. And at 2.8 grams of sugar per 100 ml serving (28 g/l), it’s also drier than most (and the sugar is natural grape sugar from the added must), also on the lower end of the calorie scale (15 calories per 100 ml).

Bolle “Twice Fermented” Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Rosé, Germany
$50 (seeking importer)
Clean fresh, offering light citrus and plummy notes, cranberry and white strawberry flavours, quite dry (though it comes across as slightly sweeter than Bolle’s Blanc de Blancs), while the finish lingers pleasantly on tart cranberry flavours. A clean, quality non-alcoholic wine all in all, without the hard or bitter edges that are often features in the category. Widely appealing and attractively packaged. A successful product to be sure. (15 calories per 100 ml, 30 g/l sugar.)

Thomson & Scott Noughty Blanc Dealcoholized Sparkling Chardonnay, La Mancha Spain
$23.99, Soft Crush Imports  
Fresh-ripe aromatics, well rounded and comes across as pretty much dry, well balanced, flavourful, comfortably proportioned. A superior example in the category.

Leitz Eins-Zwei-Zero Sparkling Rosé Rheingau, Germany
$18.99, Soft Crush Imports
Creamy mousse, fragrant, finishing light, crisp and clean. This could pass for pink Prosecco and is one of the sharpest values on the market.

Thomson & Scott Noughty Blanc Dealcoholized Sparkling Rosé, La Mancha, Spain
$23.99, Soft Crush Imports
Good intensity aromatics featuring red fruit, raspberry purée and similar. Comfortably balanced, and comes across as crisp and mostly dry, and tastes genuinely wine-y.

Prima Pavé Rosé Brut, Italy
$13.50 (200 ml) SØBR Market
A blend of montepulciano d’Abruzzo, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc and gewürztraminer from Italy, very dry and crisp, frothy and balanced without hard or sour edges. The finish lingers nicely on sour cherry fruit. A success in the category, complex enough to satisfy widely, though you pay a premium for the 200 ml format; the 750 ml sells for $35. (0% ABV, 26 g/l sugar, 12 calories per 100 ml.)

John Szabo’s Buyer’s Guide to Non-alcoholic Wine: White & Rosé

Leitz Eins-Zwei-Zero Riesling, Rheingau, Germany
$16.99, Soft Crush Imports
One of the original zero-alcohol wine producers, Leitz was ahead of the game when he created the Eins-Zwei-Zero line a decade and a half ago. Clean and fresh, with attractive floral and fruity aromatics in the German riesling spectrum. Represents well.

Zeronimo Grüner Veltliner, Austria
$21.00 (375 ml) SØBR Market
Zeronimo’s de-alcoholised grüner has marked varietal character, a rarity in the category to be sure. I appreciate the white pepper, citrus and lentil flavours in the textbook style. One could probably even pick out the grape tasting blind. I also like the balance on the palate, dry and crisp as it is, and lively and refreshing with a gentle spritz to enliven it further. It actually has some length to the finish, another rarity in the non-alcoholic wines. Chapeau bas I say, one of the best that I’ve come across in the genre. (<0.5% 22 g/l, 12 calories per 100ml serving.)

Thomson & Scott Noughty Blanc Dealcoholized White, Western Cape, South Africa
$26.99, Soft Crush Imports
Bears a resemblance to Cape chenin blanc with its yellow-fleshed fruit and fresh hay aromas and flavours.

Leitz Eins-Zwei-Zero Rosé Rheingau, Germany
$16.99, Soft Crush Imports
Crushed leaves and tart red fruit flavours lead on the mostly dry palate with crunchy, underlying acids. I like the saliva-inducing quality; complexity is, of course, modest but this works pretty well in the end.

Brochet Zero Sauvignon Blanc Loire Valley France
$18.99, Soft Crush Imports
Made from organically farmed (and certified) sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley, Brochet’s Zero is an explosively aromatic de-alcoholized example — fresh grape must is added back in, contributing the sugar and the zesty-green aromatics.

John Szabo’s Buyer’s Guide to Non-alcoholic Wine: Red

Thomson & Scott Noughty Dealcoholized Red Darling, South Africa
$26.99, Soft Crush Imports
One of the few drinkable non-alcoholic reds I’ve come across, a syrah that actually tastes like syrah, with typical ripe black berry fruit, a touch of pepper and a little puff of wood smoke on the finish.

Zeronimo Zweigelt, Austria
$21.75 (375 ml) SØBR Market
A non-alcoholic red wine that actually starts to resemble the real thing, this zweigelt from Zeronimo is surely a category leader. I appreciate the depth of flavour and the gentle tannic tug on the palate, the way fully alcoholic wine behaves, and especially the finish that lingers. Tart red berry flavours dominate very much in the varietal idiom. Poured blind I imagine it could fool many into believing it’s simply a lighter style of red wine. (<0.5% ABV, 21 g/l sugar, 12 calories per 100ml.)

That’s all for this report, see you ’round the next bottle. 

 John Szabo, MS

Use these quick links for access to all of our February 1st Top Picks in the New Release. Non-premium members can select from all release dates 30 days prior.
John’s Top Picks – February 1st
Michael’s Mix – February 1st
Sara’s Selections – February 1st

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