Ever been disappointed with an alcohol-free wine? Why is it that some of them taste so bad? One wine importer told me he went to a trade fair to source an alcohol-free wine earlier this year. “The more I tried, the more despairing I felt. I ended up delisting some of the ones I already had.”
Alcohol-free beer has been very successful, but beer has less alcohol to lose in the transformation, so it changes less. Most alcohol-free beer tastes quite like the real stuff, both the big brands and craft brews. With alcohol-free spirits, you can add all sorts of herbs, spices and other flavours to create an interesting drink where you won’t notice the lack of alcohol quite so much. Most are added to mixers or used in cocktails, so again the lack of alcohol is not so obvious – unless it’s a dry martini. But if you add flavouring to wine, it just tastes less like wine.
I suspect the problem is that alcohol plays a key role in the taste of wine, both as a conveyor of aroma as well as being part of the flavour, the body and overall balance. When you remove the alcohol, you lose a lot of the aromas, the mouthfeel and texture. Acidity and sugar will also seem more obvious. Some alcohol-free wines are de-alcoholised – that is, made like standard wine before having the alcohol removed. Others are simply grape juice with various additives. Many have high levels of acidity and often a lot of sugar too.
Maybe expectation is the key to enjoying alcohol-free wine. If you want it to taste like normal wine, you will probably be disappointed
Sweetness is added in the form of rectified grape must − concentrated grape juice (which is also added to some standard red wines, fruit juices and other products). The process of removing alcohol is expensive, which helps explain why alcohol-free wines are rarely cheap, even though they attract no excise duty. Apparently sales of alcohol-free wines are increasing globally, and price is no object to some. Earlier this year, French Bloom (featured below) released La Cuvée in France, its luxury cuvée of sparkling wine. This sells for more than €100.
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As part of my tasting I have tried two drinks, one of which was a wine, flavoured with green or white tea. The Kylie Sparkling Rosé (€7.99, Dunnes) is sweet, but interesting. Given Kylie’s success with other drinks, I expect this will sell very well. The Copenhagen Lysegrøn Sparkling Tea (€22) is a very good, sophisticated drink and my favourite of the tasting – but does not contain any wine or grapes. Maybe expectation is the key to enjoying alcohol-free wine. If you want it to taste like normal wine you will probably be disappointed. If you treat it as a separate kind of drink, you are more likely to enjoy it. Remember, there is a great choice of other low- and no-alcohol drinks on the market now.
[ How to discover the style of wine you likeOpens in new window ]
If I am avoiding alcohol, I tend to go for 00 beer or cider, or even better a water kefir, kombucha or flavoured sparkling water. If I am pacing myself, I find lower-alcohol (5-7 per cent ABV) wines can taste better than no-alcohol offerings.
For this exercise I have tasted 33 zero-alcohol wines. The red wines are the least palatable. Some are disgusting, and most have confected fruit flavours and an unpleasant earthiness. The rosé wines are a big improvement, and the white wines better still. By far the best are the sparkling wines. I have tasted a dozen sparkling bottles and found some really nice wines that I would be very happy to drink.
French Bloom Rosé Organic French Bubbly
At €30, this was the most expensive wine I tasted – and the best. Elegant and floral with creamy strawberry fruits.
McGuigan Zero Chardonnay, Australia
Rich peaches and vanilla, according to the back label – and it doesn’t lie. One for Chardonnay lovers. €5.50 (Tesco)-€8 (SuperValu)
Torres Natureo De-Alcoholised Wine Muscat 2023, Spain
Pleasant, aromatic, fruity white wine. A decent, inexpensive (€8.50), fresh summer white.
Freixenet Zero Zero Selected Sparkling
Rich, fruity and not too sweet. At €6.50 this could be good for mocktails. Freixenet also has the Legero for about €8.
Hollow Leg Sparkling Wine
Fresh crisp and dry, with a lightly textured finish. Costs more (€15), but tastes better than most of the rivals.
Kolonne Nul Rosé 2023
Made in Germany using Provençal grapes, a stylish fruit-filled dry rosé for about €16-€17. Redcurrants and strawberries.
Doppio Passo Primitivo Alternativa, Italy
This red wine, at €11.99, is sweet and quite sickly, with jammy confected dark fruits.
