It is no longer a secret that alcohol-free is on the rise. The number of alcohol-free alternatives is constantly increasing and consumers are more and more curious and demanding. But do you really know what alcohol-free wine is?
The bottles look the same, the labels say "Merlot" or "Sauvignon Blanc", but they are wines from which all the alcohol has been removed. The aromas, the colour, the structure, everything is there except for the presence of ethanol - they are products of the dealcoholisation process!
This technology consists in separating the alcoholic part of the wine using different efficient and qualitative processes: reverse osmosis or vacuum distillation. Therefore, a dealcoholised wine has undergone all the classic winemaking operations, allowing the development of complex aromas before the dealcoholisation operation, making it a rich and unique product.
Be careful, however, as there are alcohol-free products on supermarket shelves that are not dealcoholised wines but juices or blends. These drinks, which have never undergone fermentation, obviously do not have the same organoleptic qualities. Indeed, by undergoing fermentation with the help of yeast and ageing, the wines obtain aromas called "secondary" and "tertiary" as well as a structure and length in the mouth that are impossible to reproduce otherwise. In addition, dealcoholised wines generally have a lower sugar content than those found in these juice-based drinks.
With a lower number of calories, alcohol-free wines are therefore naturally suitable for sportsmen and people who do not drink alcohol (pregnant women for example) but also for anyone who wants to limit their alcohol consumption while enjoying a drink with friends.