Non-Alcoholic Wine Isn't Always Alcohol-Free—Here's How to Know What You're Getting

Yahoo

30-05-2025

These days, just because you want to enjoy a glass of bubbly or open a bottle of red, white, or rosé, it doesn't mean you're necessarily pouring a traditional wine. The market for non-alcoholic wine is growing by leaps and bounds. "In the United States, non-alcoholic wine sales reached $89.9 million in 2024, marking a 27% increase from the previous year," says Emily Heintz, founder and CEO of Sèchey.
But, just because these wines are more widely available, it doesn't mean that they're well-understood. In fact, some of the non-alcoholic wine on the market isn't actually alcohol-free. The amount of alcohol is tiny, but for people who want to avoid it completely, it's helpful to know what to look for on the label. To clarify matters, I asked a couple of experts to shed some light on these newly popular beverages.
Related: 7 Mocktail Recipes for Sober October That Are So Good, You Won't Miss AlcoholEmily Heintz, founder and CEO of Sèchey, a purveyor of alcohol-free and alternative wine, beer and spirits, including non-alcoholic wines sold at Target
Grant Hemingway, CEO and co-founder of Libby Non-Alcoholic Wines, which makes non-alcoholic sparkling white and sparkling roséNon-alcoholic wine is often used as an umbrella term, says Heintz. 'But technically, it refers to beverages with less than 0.5% ABV. In the US, this is the legal threshold set by the FDA to be considered 'non-alcoholic.''
Generally speaking, there are two ways to make non-alcoholic wine. The first is to craft a beverage from water, juices, tea, and/or other flavorings to make a drink that looks, smells, and tastes as much like wine as possible. These drinks are typically zero-alcohol.
The second method is to start with real wine that has been made just like traditional vino—the grapes are harvested, crushed, and fermented, says Grant Hemingway, CEO and co-founder of Libby Non-Alcoholic Wines. 'Then the alcohol is gently removed using techniques like spinning cone columns or molecular extraction, which preserve aroma and flavor while reducing ethanol below 0.5% ABV.' This wine is often called 'dealcoholized' or 'alcohol-removed.'
A lot of common beverages—not just non-alcoholic wines—clock in around 0.5% ABV and are still considered non-alcoholic. Think kombucha, for example. But, if you truly want wine without a trace of alcohol, look for one that says '0.0% ABV' on the front or back label, says Heintz. 'The ABV percentage is the clearest indicator of whether a wine is truly alcohol-free.' And remember, these drinks won't have started as actual wine.
If you're choosing between a true zero-alcohol "wine" and a dealcoholized one, there are a few things to consider. If absolutely no alcohol is important to you, choose one of the wine-inspired bottles available. But, says Heintz, consumers should know that "many 0.0% 'wine-inspired' options on the market lean more toward sweet, flavored beverages.'
Hemingway agrees that dealcoholized wines give a drinker the closest thing to a real wine experience. 'They begin as real wine, so you retain the structure, acidity, and nuance that's hard to fake. You can't easily recreate that complexity in a lab.'
Read the original article on Real Simple