I tasted an alcohol-free wine for the first time in London back in April.
Seeing a line of wines whose labels say alcohol free on a supermarket shelf, I immediately grabbed one bottle. After all, this unorthodox wine could hardly be found in the immensely tradition-abiding Italy, where I lived and still live.
Asking Italians what they think of alcohol-free wine is like asking them if pineapple bits can be sprinkled on a pizza. If you want to make friends with them, I advise you never to ask these 2 questions.
Alcohol-free wine made how?
Before revealing how this German-made alcohol-free Sauvignon Blanc tasted, I’d first talk about how alcohol-free wine is made.
The wine is made the conventional way (sugar in grape juice plus yeast makes alcohol), only that an alcohol removing process takes place afterwards.
The most common way to remove alcohol today is via reverse osmosis.
Place the wine on one side of a membrane, then the wine is pumped against the membrane at a pressure greater than the osmotic pressure. Compounds with smaller molecules, such as water and alcohol will penetrate to the other side of the membrane, while larger moleculer compounds, such as acids, aromas, phenols, and glycerol, remain where they were. With water and alcohol seeping to the other side, the remaining compounds concentrate. Finally water is added to dilute the concentrate. Alcohol-free wine is so made.
NoLo
Despite the term “alcohol free”, EU regulations stipulate that as long as the abv is less than 0.5%, the label can say alcohol free. Because technically speaking, only a very small proportion of alcohol-free wine is actually 0% abv. For this reason, we can say that alcohol-free wine is a beverage composed of acids, aromas, phenols, glycerol, water and a very small amount of alcohol.
In addition to no-alcohol, low-alcohol wine is also meant to be a healthier option. The abv of a low-alcohol wine is between 0.5-9%. The word NoLo (putting No and Low together) refers to alcoholic drinks that are alcohol free or low alcohol.
The importance of alcohol
Now back to the tasting notes of that alcohol-free Sauvignon Blanc.
Conclusion first: from the perspective of apple vinegar, it was OK; from the perspective of wine, it was apple vinegar.
In terms of aroma, faint gooseberry and guava, typical of Sauvignon Blanc, plus a hint of jasmine tea.
On the palate it was almost off-dry, high acidity, very apple vinegary, which had nothing to do with wine.
The truth is that alcohol accounts for 12-15% of a wine, which can obviously considerably impact its flavour. If this important component (almost 1/5 of a wine) is removed, the flavour will irretrievably be lost. I’d tried an alcohol-free beer once, and the flavour was just spot on. This is because the abv in a beer is much less than that in a wine, so the impact of alcohol on a beer’s flavour is all but insignificant.
Imagine if the 40% alcohol was removed from a whiskey, would it still taste like whiskey?
To make up for the loss of flavour after alcohol removal, things are usually added to a alcohol-free wine. For example, this Sauvignon Blanc contained also colourless concentrated grape juice, flavourings and CO2.
My first experience with alcohol-free wine in April was not too pleasant, but I’ll be trying some reds and sparklers to have a better idea. And I’ll keep you posted.
