Non alcoholic wine is becoming increasingly popular among people looking to reduce their alcohol intake. Like other non alcoholic drinks and spirits, the wine allows you to enjoy your favorite flavors while avoiding alcohol almost entirely. The wine is also much better than all the excessively sweet and fruity mocktails out there.
Products like these are perfect for many people, including pregnant women, those with health conditions, and anyone else who just wants to drink a little less. After all, while wine offers some health benefits, too much of it can be very harmful (and it’s easy to overdo it).
Alcohol free wine is much more than just grape juice. Most products are made using similar processes to regular wine, which gives them a familiar complexity and flavor profile.
After this, a dealcoholizing process is used to remove the alcohol from the wine, giving you a product with less than 0.5% alcohol. Many products have natural flavors and other ingredients added to help with the flavor profile, as removing alcohol always changes the way your wine tastes.
There are now countless types of non alcoholic wine on the market, but they’re not all tasty. Some are little more than glorified grape juice and don’t taste like wine at all. Others may be sweeter than you hope for or don’t match the desired flavor profile in a different way.
That’s why this list is focusing on the best products. Through it, we’ll show you what’s out there and how the different wines compare.
P.S. Why not check out alcohol free whiskey or gin as well? These products have the complexity of regular spirits without the alcohol. A few are made without any fermentation, which makes them entirely alcohol free.
Non Alcoholic Wine Brands
Studio Null
Studio Null specializes in alcohol free wines, making them an excellent place to begin. They have a relatively small range, but this isn’t a bad thing. It just gives them the chance to focus more heavily on quality and getting their techniques just right.
Their products rely on natural organic ingredients, which are all sourced from small vineyards. Studio Null also offers full transparency and every wine contains details about where the ingredients were sourced from. This is an impressive feature, giving you a wine you can trust.
For example, the company’s Second Release features Solo Garnacha and Sparkling Verdejo. Solo Garnacha is a varietal Spanish red wine made using grenache grapes, while Sparkling Verdejo is a sparkling white wine that’s also from Spain and relies on verdejo grapes.
Reviews are exceptional, suggesting that the wines get surprisingly close to the real deal. The only slight complaint is the sweetness, which is a little higher than is ideal. However, this pattern is true for most alcohol free wines, as it’s hard to tame the sweetness of grapes without alcohol in the mix.
Sutter Home Fre Wines
Fre Wines is one of the most extensive alcohol free wine brands. They offer alcohol free versions of most of the classics, including sparkling brut, rosé (sparkling and still), chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot. Fre is even part of a club where you can have alcohol free mixers and wines shipped out to you quarterly.
Reviews suggest that the wine really does live up to its promise. You get plenty of familiar flavors, including light rose and peach in Fre Moscato and cherries and plums in Fre Merlot.
Some of their offerings are also unusual and exciting. In particular, it’s unusual to see alcohol free merlot or chardonnay, as many other brands focus on wine blends or on different types of grapes.
Thomson & Scott Noughty
Companies that specialize in alcohol free wine have often nailed their processes, so they can give you delicious authentic wine every time. Noughty is one such company and there are plenty of products to choose from, including alcohol free syrah red wine, white wine, a sparkling chardonnay, and a sparkling rosé.
These products have all been dealcoholized, so they contain less than 0.5% alcohol. The sugar content is also kept low and the wines are made using traditional processes, giving you wine that’s surprisingly close to the real thing.
Classico Grande
Classico Grande comes from Lyre’s, a brand that also produces some pretty amazing non alcoholic gin and bourbon. Their take on sparkling wine even uses a similar bottle and label to authentic bubbly, which should make it seem instantly familar.
This isn’t champagne though. Instead, the drink is designed to mimic classic Italian sparkling wines, like prosecco. As part of this, the expression includes apple, pear, and peach as some of the main flavor notes.
Don’t worry though, this sparkling wine doesn’t taste like grape juice. Not even a little. It has a complex and nuanced flavor profile instead, one that is divine in its own right. Seriously, if you didn’t know that this type of drink is normally alcoholic, you wouldn’t even miss the alcohol.
Giesen Wines
Giesen is particularly exciting as the company is a traditional wine maker that is already famous for producing high quality wines. Their 0% alcohol range covers the basics, including pinot gris, sauvignon blanc, rosé, riesling, and even merlot. There are a couple of low alcohol wines too, in case you want to cut alcohol intake down, but not out.
Three of their 0% wines even won awards in the 2022 International Wine and Spirit Competition. Their merlot came in at 95 points with a gold medal, while the rosé received a silver at 91 points, and the riesling reached a bronze with 85 points.
While it didn’t place in the competition, the Giesen Malborough Sauvignon Blanc is often recommended as one of their best products. This has a similar dry finish as a regular sauvignon blanc, along with plenty of familiar flavor notes.
Reviews reinforce the value of these products, showing that they have much of the depth and complexity of regular wine. Of course, they’re not quite the same, but they’re closer than most other products.
Pierre Zéro
Pierre is another company that excels in alcohol free wine. Their selection of products is impressive, including alcohol free merlot, chardonnay, rosé, sparkling rosé, and sparkling chardonnay. There are even single serving and boxed versions of many products, giving you something for every situation.
The small versions are exceptional if you’re new to the brand. After all, alcohol free wines differ considerably and we all have our own preferences. Buying small bottles gives you the chance to try new products without spending too much money in the process.
The merlot is particularly close to the real thing. It even has the perfect color and strong red berry notes. It’s sweeter than regular merlot, but that’s not surprising and isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Pierre is also distinctive in that they aim to completely remove alcohol from their wine. In contrast, some other companies just aim to get their product to an alcohol content of less than 0.5%.
Grüvi Dry Secco
Here’s an interesting product to consider. Grüvi Dry Secco breaks the mold as it doesn’t rely on fermentation at all, so it doesn’t even contain trace amounts of alcohol.
Despite the lack of fermentation, this product tastes surprisingly close to true prosecco, which is very impressive. While there are still some differences, fermented alcohol free wines don’t get any closer to the mark.
It’s best to buy this one from the company itself or from local stores, as Amazon purchases sometimes get inferior products or bad batches that taste like vinegar.
If you’re not a fan of white wine, Grüvi also offers a sparkling rosé that is also completely alcohol free.
Grüvi Dry Red Blend
Then there’s Grüvi Dry Red Blend. Unlike the dry secco and sparkling rosé from Grüvi products, this one does rely on fermentation (so it contains trace amounts of alcohol). However, it has all the features you’d expect in an alcohol free red wine, including bold and fruity flavors and tannins.
This is also a dry red wine, so the sugar content is pretty low. What’s more, Grüvi worked with their customers to create this wine. This is a nice change of pace, as most companies just do their own thing and hope that customers like the final product.
Interestingly, this wine is only sold in cans, which is apparently because it is a limited release. The use of cans also means that each serving is completely fresh, which is a nice touch.
Surely
Surely focuses entirely on alcohol free wine, making them well-versed in the processes. Interestingly, they only have one still wine in the collection – sauvignon blanc. All the rest are sparkling wines, including sparkling rosé, brut, regular white wine, and even sparkling red.
The sparkling red is a particularly unusual style, but works well and combines cabernet and pinot noir grapes to produce a dark, fruity, and oaky drink. The flavor profile is surprisingly close to red wine too. Plus, there are few other products on the market like this.
Leitz Alcohol Free Wines
Leitz is a fairly obscure German company that is easily missed. That’s a shame, as they offer a surprising range of alcohol free wines, including two sparkling white wines, chardonnay, riesling, two rosés, cabernet sauvignon, and pinot noir.
Interestingly, their cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir are advertised as being dealcoholized wines, while the others are all promoted as being alcohol free. However, there may still be trace amounts of alcohol, as all of the wine went through some initial fermentation steps.
The owner of the company, Johannes Leitz, has confirmed that his products don’t taste exactly like true wine. However, they are delicious drinks in their own right and are closer to the real deal than most other products.
Ariel
Ariel promotes itself as offering ‘the world’s best dealcoholized wines’. To do so, the company uses Californian wine grapes and follows traditional winemaking practices, including fermentation. Cold filtration is used to remove the alcohol towards the final stages of production.
This cold filtration process is interesting, as many other companies use a combination of heat and evaporation to get rid of the alcohol. Cold processes should be gentler on the wine and retain more of its authentic flavor and texture.
Ariel once had a considerable range of different alcohol free wines, but now they focus on just two – chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. This decrease in Ariel’s product range is disappointing, but does allow Ariel to focus on making the best wines possible.
Reviews for both versions tend to be positive, suggesting that Ariel has created something that’s pretty close to the real deal.
Luminara
Luminara is another company that focuses on quality rather than quantity. They offer just two types of wine – a chardonnay and a red blend. Notably, both products use grapes from the Napa Valley, which is unusual for alcohol free wine.
Luminara really has nailed it in terms of quality, particularly with their red blend. The flavor profile here is close to actual red wine, which is remarkable, as the flavors of red wines are more difficult to replicate than whites. Using a blend of grapes instead of a single type may have helped Luminara to get the flavor exactly where they want it.
Proxies
Proxies wines are a little different, largely because the products aren’t wine at all (despite the familiar bottle shape and label style) and don’t rely on fermented and dealcoholized grape juice.
Instead, the drinks focus on a layered combination of ingredients, including grapes, fresh fruit, bitters, and spices. There are even some vinegar-like notes.
This approach creates a product that’s surprisingly complex and has an interesting bite. The drinks are designed to be served like wine and mimic the experience as closely as possible.
However, Proxies aren’t trying to replicate any specific type of wine. For example, their red collection includes Red Clay and Red Ember entries, rather than traditional options like pinot noir and merlot.
By not trying to mimic wine precisely, the company has much more flexibility with ingredients and flavors. In some ways, their drinks even feel more authentic than most other wines on this list.
Why Is Alcohol Free Wine So Expensive?
Alcohol free wine often costs almost as much as a regular bottle of wine and is sometimes even more expensive. This can be frustrating, as we’re basically talking about glorified grape juice.
That said, the price tag does make sense. After all, alcohol free wine goes through most of the same processes as regular wine, including fermentation. It is also dealcoholized and may have extra ingredients added, which are additional steps.
Each of these processing steps costs money, which is reflected in the product’s final price.
If the pricing frustrates you, then it’s best to look for non-fermented products. These may not have all the complexity of a bottle of wine, but they tend to be cheaper.
Why Is The Wine Too Sweet?
Complaints about alcohol free wine often focus on the fact that it is sweeter than traditional wine and has less intensity. This is partly because much of wine’s flavor and ‘bite’ is lost when the alcohol is removed.
To avoid watery and dull wine, companies tend to replace the lost flavor with concentrated grape juice and sometimes extra flavoring ingredients. This approach increases the amount of sugar in the drink, resulting in a sweeter wine.
Plus, the alcohol in real wine makes some of its sugar less noticeable. Because non alcoholic wine lacks this alcohol content, the sugar becomes much more obvious.
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