No-Low Alcohol Wines

A few days ago, the Italian government finally passed a law allowing wine producers to produce no and low alcohol wines – before they could be produced but could not be called wine. However, the law currently excludes IGT, DOC, and DOCG appellations, for now, there’s no chance of finding a low-alcohol Amarone or Chianti, restricting it to table wines. While producers could, in theory, make plenty of no and low alcohol wines, they will get lost amongst the other wines. As a result, I’m not sure this change will have much of an impact.

Dealcoholizing a wine is not a simple process and requires the use of advanced technologies. Among the most common methods there is vacuum evaporation, which allows to eliminate the alcohol by lowering the evaporation temperature and preserving the water. Other techniques involve the use of membranes, such as reverse osmosis and pervaporation, which separate the alcoholic liquid from the other components of the wine. Distillation - which can take place with the rotating cone column ("spinning cone column") or under vacuum - offers a further option to reduce the alcohol content without compromising the organoleptic characteristics.

These processes can be combined to achieve better results, but they are costly. Since most Italian winemakers are small to medium sized producers, they will likely need to rely on specialized companies to tackle this technological and financial challenge. This added complexity and expense may lead many of them to avoid pursuing the trend altogether.

However, dealcoholized wines are different from alcohol free wines. In the case of dealcoholized wines, the wine is fermented, the sugar is converted in alcohol, and the alcohol is then removed through one of the processes mentioned earlier. Conversely, in alcohol-free wines, the alcoholic fermentation never takes place, so no alcohol is formed. This results to a drink - it can't be called wine according to the Italian legislation - with a higher sugar content than dealcoholized wines, since the sugars are not transformed. This reminds me of the many white Zinfandel, where the sugar in partially fermented leading to a wine with lower alcohol and a higher residual sugar. If the juice was not fermented at all, the sugar content will be much higher.

None of our producers are planning to start making no or low alcohol wines, instead they are battling the effect of climate change, which is driving wines to have increasingly higher alcohol content. Personally I’ve tried a few no and low alcohol wines but they were not wines for me, they were lacking the body and structure that a wine has which I believe is the main problem for the whole category - even on the nose were lacking something. Whether this problem will be resolved in the future remains to be seen.

As of February 1st, alcohol content will directly impact the amount of duty paid, with higher alcohol drinks facing significantly increased charges. This policy change is likely to drive a surge in low alcohol wines entering the market. While wineries worldwide, including the UK, are already battling to stay afloat, this additional government imposed burden further strains an industry that is struggling to survive.