BBCIn Bordeaux vineyards, the unspeakable has turned into the drinkable. Non-alcoholic wine has arrived.
Yesterday’s heresy has become today’s opportunity thanks to the scientific and economic crisis.
Wine farms that would have lit their grapes rather than suffer such indignities are now openly considering non-alcoholic bottles.
And developers are making rapid progress, creating wines that are intentionally designed to achieve the best results from the dealcoholization process.
“When we started a few years ago, what we were making was frankly garbage,” says Frédéric Brochet, a Bordeaux oenologist who helped create the Moderato non-alcoholic wine.
“But we have made great progress. And today we are getting closer and closer to our goal. I think it will be a revolution in the world of wine.”
Bordeaux has just seen its first release. cave – Wine Shop – specializing exclusively in non-alcoholic wines, reflecting a change in perception that has surprised many in the industry.
“We’ve only been open for four weeks and already local winegrowers are coming in to inquire about the non-alcoholic market,” said Alexandre Kettaneh, who owns Les Belles Grappes with his wife Anne.
“They have no idea what to do, but they know it’s coming and they want to be a part of it.”
Several things happened to make that moment appropriate.
First of all, the French wine industry is experiencing great difficulties. Domestic consumption continues to decline and the Chinese market is not what it used to be. President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to impose new taxes. Precious ancient vineyards across France are being demolished.
Second, consumption habits, especially among young people, are changing. Supermarkets now give more space to beer than to wine. Most people in their 20s have no habit of drinking wine at all and are much more concerned about their health than older people.
Non-alcohol lifestyle is spreading. Currently, 10% of the French beer market is non-alcoholic. In Spain it is 25%.
Third, technology has improved dramatically.
In the past – and still today for cheaper brands – the method was to simply boil the alcohol and then add compensating flavors. The results – especially for red – are mediocre at best. These drinks cannot even call themselves wine, but are “non-alcoholic wine-based drinks.”
But now there’s cold vacuum distillation and a new way to “capture” the aromas for reintroduction into non-alcoholic wine. The result was a wine that could legally be called wine and was starting to come into its own among discerning consumers.
“With red wine, you have to prepare for an experience that is not the same as traditional wine with alcohol. We cannot replicate it, but we cannot give it the full texture,” says Fabien Marchand-Cassagne of Moderato.
“But what you get is a real wine moment. Bouquet, tannin, fruit, balance – it’s all there to enjoy.”
At the Clos De Bouard estate near Saint-Emilion, a third of sales now come from the château’s two (soon to be three) non-alcoholic brands. Owner Coralie de Bouard first glimpsed the possibility in 2019 when she was asked to develop a non-alcoholic wine for the Qatari owners of PSG football club.
“My family didn’t talk to me for a year. This was my ‘treason’. Even today I get hate mail from wine growers saying I’m ruining the market,” she says.
“But now my father congratulates me and says I am the locomotive of the wine train. And the reason we are able to survive in these difficult times is because we have switched to the non-alcoholic market.”
“For purists, this was very difficult to accept,” said Bernard Rabouy, winegrower at the Bordeaux Families cooperative.
“But we have to evolve. The fact is the customers are not where they used to be. So we have to go and get the customers or they will go somewhere else.”
Advocates of non-alcoholic wine value the notion that non-drinkers who previously felt excluded can get in on the wine banter. And it is true that the ritual of opening, smelling, describing and comparing is now open to everyone.
“What we want to do is to bring back the France of its youth, when everyone was sitting around the dinner table drinking wine, a real moment of sharing,” says Anne Kattaneh.
“And the only way we can do that these days is for non-alcoholic wine to become part of the culture.”
“The idea that the wine world has always been the way it is is rubbish,” says oenologist Brochet.
“Things evolve. In the old days, barrels were an innovation, cork was an innovation, grape varieties were an innovation, and now this is the new thing. It could help save the industry and the wonderful landscape and culture that comes with it. .
“As (poet) Paul Valery said, what is tradition but successful innovation?”
