The Truth About Non-Alcoholic Wine After Tasting 40 Bottles

Ep 140

Being pregnant forced me into a real-world test of non-alcoholic wine, and the results were not what you might expect.

When I announced I was pregnant, the constant question that followed once wine was off the table was: are there any good non-alcoholic wine options? That curiosity turned into a deep dive for me where I tasted more than 40 non-alcoholic wines, all while continuing to taste traditional wine for comparison.

You’ll hear an honest breakdown of why, in my opinion, non-alcoholic wine does not taste like wine, how alcohol-removed wine differs from wine alternatives, and why expectations matter so much when approaching this category. 

At the end I share six non-alcoholic wines that are genuinely enjoyable, plus where to find them if you are navigating pregnancy, sobriety or simply looking to cut back.

So if you are curious about non-alcoholic wine and want an honest take, this episode will help you know what to reach for and what to skip.

Thank you to the following brands for sponsoring this podcast:

• Bon Chocolats: Go to www.bonchocolats.com and use code CORKANDFIZZ10 for 10% off your order!

6 Non-Alcoholic Wines I Recommend

1. Dr. Lo Riesling - https://www.cheekyanddry.com/products/dr-lo-riesling
2. Sea Monster Tidal Wave White - https://www.cheekyanddry.com/products/sea-monster-tidal-wave-white-non-alcoholic-wine
3. Joyus Sparkling Wine - https://www.cheekyanddry.com/products/joyus-nonalcoholic-sparkling-wine
4. Domaine EdeM N.0 Sparkling Rosé - https://www.cheekyanddry.com/products/n-0-rose-e-de-m 
5. Heinz Wagner Black Forest NA Bubbles - https://tupetzwine.com/product/non-alc-bubbles/ (use code CORKFIZZ15 to save 15% off 3 or more bottles)
6. Woody’s Sparkling Rosé - https://thezeroproof.com/products/woodys-sparkling-rose 

Resources

The Quest for Good Non-Alcoholic Wine - https://www.corkandfizz.com/blog/the-quest-for-good-non-alcoholic-wine

The Zero Proof - https://thezeroproof.com/

Tupetz Wine - https://tupetzwine.com/

Non-Alcoholic Wine (Let’s Talk About That) - Episode 33

Cheeky & Dry- https://www.cheekyanddry.com/

Why German Wine Goes Beyond Sweet Riesling

Transcript

0:09

Interested in learning about wine but not sure where to start? You're in the right place. Welcome to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. I'm your host, Hailey Bohlman and I'm so glad you're here. I'm a wine enthusiast turned wine educator and and founder of the Seattle based wine tasting business Cork and Fizz. It is my goal to build your confidence in wine by making it approachable and lots of fun. You can expect to learn everything from how to describe your favorite wine to what to pair with dinner tonight and so much more. Whether you're a casual wine sipper or a total cork dork like myself, this podcast is for you. So grab yourself a glass and let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. In case you haven't heard, I am currently pregnant with my first child or at least at the time of recording. I'm not sure when this is being released off the top of my head. So at least while I'm recording this, I am currently pregnant. And as a wine lover or wine educator, I bet you can guess the number one question that people ask me when they find out I'm not drinking at the moment. Any guesses? Yeah, it's do you have any non alcoholic wine recommendations? What are you drinking? I knew this would be a popular question and I also wanted to discover for myself if I could find any good non alcoholic wines. Because as grateful as I am to be pregnant and to grow my family, I do very much miss wine. And so if I could find a good alternative that didn't have alcohol, that would be amazing. So I set out on this quest to find a good non alcoholic wine and this episode is essentially everything I discovered. I am not holding back. I'm not about to hide anything from you about how I feel about this. It's my true honest opinion and anything I recommend is something that I have one, I've definitely drank and two I would drink again. So you can trust that this is all my my honest opinion. It is not factual. It is just from my my quest and my experience. So let's get into it. So starting off, this wasn't actually my first time looking into non alcoholic wine. About three years ago I was simply curious as non alcoholic wine had just kind of started to become more popular. So I figured why not, why not try some? I'll link the blog post in the show notes for you that resulted from this experiment along with I actually did a podcast episode about two years ago based off this. And I'll be honest, at the time I was not impressed with the selection. I tried 11 different non alcoholic wines and wine alternatives. And I'll talk a little bit later in this episode what the difference is between those. The only good ones I found out of the 11 were, were bubbly. Like they had to have some sort of sparkling element for them to be good. Now fast forward to now and I have tried over 40 non alcoholic wine. And here is my honest opinion. Non alcoholic wine does not taste like wine. I am sorry, but every single wine that I've had, I am convinced that I could tell the difference between that and a wine that actually had alcohol. Because at the same time, I've continued to taste regular wine. I just spit instead of swallowing the wine. And so I have still been experiencing both of them at the same time. And the thing is that the non alcoholic wine was always disappointing because it did not taste like wine. I would be amazed if there were people that felt like, especially wine lovers who felt like they'd found a non alcoholic wine that does taste exactly like wine. Like it would be. You wouldn't be able to pick it out in a blind tasting. But here's the thing. So that said, like, I feel very strongly non alcoholic wine does not taste like wine. That said, there are plenty of non alcoholic wines that taste good, right? They taste good and I think they taste even better when you remove the expectation in your mind that they should taste like wine. It's like I was getting disappointed every time. Cause I'm like, ooh, this is gonna be like wine. And then I have it. I'm like, no, that's nothing like wine. But if I just drank it and said, hmm, is this a good drink? I would be much more pleasantly surprised with many of these. Now, before I get into sharing some of my favorites, because I do actually have some favorites in this category, let's talk about what the difference is between alcohol removed wine and wine alternatives. How non alcoholic wine is made, why non alcoholic wine is actually kind of expensive. And I'll share my take on why I think non alcoholic wine isn't as good of a match for the real thing compared to non alcoholic beer or cider. Be sure to stick around to the end of the podcast where you will hear six non alcoholic wines that I would actually recommend. Also, I'm going to start saying N A instead of non alcoholic because that is a mouthful. So if you hear me say N A, that is the same thing as non alcoholic. Just a quick reminder, if you are not on my mailing list yet. What are you waiting for? I would love for you to join. When you do, you'll get a free shopping guide that has 15 of my favorite wines under $15. Head to corkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and there'll be a little section where you can join the mailing list. I send out a weekly newsletter filled with wine tips, recommendations, special offers, and so much more. Now let's get back to the show. Okay, first off, what is the difference between an alcohol removed wine and a wine alternative? Because these are two different things. An alcohol removed wine is exactly what it sounds like. First, wine is made regularly just how you would make a regular wine. It goes through the fermentation process and you have a product that is wine, then that product goes through a process of having the alcohol removed. A good caveat to know here. For anything that is alcohol removed, there is yet to be a way to remove all alcohol from a wine. So any NA wine that says it is alcohol removed will probably have a little bit of alcohol left over. But when I say a little bit, I mean like minuscule. It'll have less than 0.5% alcohol remaining in it, which is similar to a cup of orange juice, believe it or not. And there are actually, this is really interesting. I end up having to talk to a person around Seattle here that runs a non alcoholic wine shop. And I think I talked to a couple other people too because I noticed non alcoholic or the alcohol removed wines from Europe actually said 0.0% alcohol on them. And I was like, hold up. Did they figure out how to remove all the alcohol? The answer is no. They're allowed to put that on the bottle versus here in the US you cannot put 0.0% or you cannot say alcohol free if it was an alcohol removed. Because I guess it's somewhat misleading. Though let's be real. You don't put anything on a glass of orange juice or even like an overripe banana will have like that much alcohol in it. Okay, so. So alcohol removed simply means we made wine, then we removed the alcohol from it. And I'll tell you a little bit more about how we do that. A wine alternative on the other side never contained alcohol in the first place. It's a drink that's made to taste like wine, but but never started as wine. So they're using ingredients like herbs and vinegars and juices in order to replicate the flavor of wine, but it never started as a wine. Okay, let's dive into how non alcoholic wine is made. And this is gonna be speaking specifically about alcohol removed wine. Right. Because the other one, they just kind of like mix things together. They're doing a wine alternative. So let's talk about how we remove alcohol from the wine. So, right, Our first step, we need to make wine normally. Some NA winemakers have learned to actually pick their grapes a little earlier. And this lowers the sugar content in the grapes, which then means there will be less alcohol in the resulting wine, which means less to remove. Right. That's good. There are three methods for removing alcohol from the wine. The first is called vacuum distillation. This is where winemakers will heat the wine to about 95 degrees Fahrenheit or 35 degrees Celsius. The goal is to heat it enough for the alcohol to evaporate, but not to cook the wine. This was the very first method for removing alcohol, which was invented by a man named Carl Jung, not the psychologist, different Carl Jung in the early 1900s. Now, we've had a chance to improve on this because heating up the wine isn't necessarily a good thing. Right. We always try to try to avoid having our wine in really hot temperatures. So one improvement on this is called reverse osmosis. And this is where the wine first goes through a filter to remove components from the wine. This is essentially a way to preserve the aroma. So they're kind of separating out the wine from the aromatic compounds that are found in that wine. Then the stuff that doesn't have the aromatic compounds is heated up and the alcohol is removed. Once the alcohol is removed, the filtered components, those aromatic compounds are added back in. So it's basically a way of trying to protect the flavor and not have it be overheated. The last method, which is the most complex and the one that is being used by most newer non alcoholic brands because you don't have to heat up the wine. This is called spinning cone columns. And this is where wine will pass through a series of vertical spinning cones. The spitting motion of these cones separates the liquid from all its different components, including the alcohol. So here we're removing alcohol by this motion, the spinning motion, rather than heat, that alcohol will remain separate. We take that off to the side, we don't want it. And all the good stuff is then integrated back into a single liquid to make your non alcoholic wine. Again, friendly reminder, keep in mind, these methods fail to remove a hundred percent of the alcohol. Hover the amount left behind less than 0.5%, which is about what you'd find in a glass of orange juice or an overripe banana. Besides removing alcohol, winemakers are experimenting with other techniques, which I'm actually pretty excited about. Most of these, a lot of it comes down to adding something to the wine to help with the fact that we removed alcohol and we kind of messed with the wine a little bit. So one thing I've seen is infusing the NA wine with herbs and botanicals. And another thing is actually adding grape juice or other components after fermentation. So they go through that process and they go through the alcohol removal and then they add in some grape juice. So you're still getting some of those elements, but not the fermented version. Here's something to keep in mind. Specifically if you are drinking non alcoholic wine because you're pregnant. And the only reason I'm sharing this is because this was my experience. Some of the additions that are being put into NA wine specifically, many adaptogens, if you ever see that term on a non alcoholic wine, or honestly non alcoholic cocktails, do this even more. So many of those additions, those adaptogens, have not been deemed safe for pregnant people. This is mainly because there's no way to test it or the ingredient has been shown in the past to cause harm. So this isn't like fear mongering. Not trying to freak you out. I think it's just something to be aware of because I think at least sometimes I would just look at a menu and be like, okay, what non alcoholic options do they have? But now I find myself actually kind of researching what those are and seeing what the ingredients are. Because many of these non alcoholic beverages are trying to replace the alcohol with something else that makes you feel good. And I am not saying anything good or bad about those things. I'm just saying it's something that I was aware of as a pregnant person. So I did find this kind of frustrating because I just wanted a darn non alcoholic wine or nonalcoholic cocktail without having to worry about that. But it is what it is. What can you do? Okay, one thing that I've heard from a lot of people that they were surprised by is that non alcoholic wine can be expensive. And there's a reason for that. This is because you first have to make the wine, then remove the alcohol. So you're actually adding extra steps. And the alcohol removal portion requires a lot of fancy and expensive equipment plus extra time. Right? So of course these like, these can't be cheap. You had to make wine first and then you had to use expensive equipment to remove the alcohol. And to add to that, just a heads up, non alcoholic wine does not last long once it's opened because it doesn't have any alcohol to preserve it. So while most wines that have alcohol can last at least a few days, up to a week in the fridge, non alcoholic wines generally go bad and lose all their flavor within like 24 to 48 hours. Which to me just adds to the cost because once I open a bottle, I can't really drink it throughout the week. I need to have it all in that night. Which, like, I guess if it doesn't have alcohol, I can do that if I want to, but a lot of times I just want. I'm just going for a glass or two. Okay, Last thing. Before I get into the six non alcoholic wines that I'd recommend you try, I just want to share a little bit about why I think non alcoholic wine is not as good as NA beer or NA cider. First, alcohol does more than just get you drunk. Okay? Especially in a wine. I don't know what it does in other things, but in a wine, it provides body. It provides that texture to the wine. Remember, body is like the weight of the wine, how heavy it feels. And so by removing that alcohol, you are removing some of the body and some of the texture. And it's incredibly difficult to mimic with anything else. I have heard from some folks that you can try using bitters in a non alcoholic red wine to try to replicate this. But again, I just, I find that it's something that's really hard to replicate. And this is honestly why I think NA beer does a better job than any wine. Because beer usually contains less than what, 6% alcohol Wine usually has at least 11% alcohol takes up less of the beer's components. So you notice its absence less versus with wine, you're gonna notice it. The other reason actually came from a conversation that I had with Heather of Craft and Cluster, which you'll actually hear her episode that I did with her on the podcast here later in April. She is also pregnant with her first kid. And so as both of us being wine lovers, we were kind of talking about the non alcoholic wine movement. And she pointed out that there are a lot of wine lobbyists that worry that non alcoholic wine will take business away from their business from regular wine. And we talk more about this in that episode. So I highly recommend checking it out. But one thing that Heather pointed out was that Germany is far ahead of the US because they've taken time and money to dive into the research. Okay? Now onto the part that you have been waiting for. Here are six non alcoholic wines that I would recommend and keep in mind I'm not saying any of these actually taste like wine, but I'm saying they taste good and I would very much enjoy having a glass of these at dinner or when everybody else is drinking. If I want something I would reach for one of these and I will make sure I have links to each of these in the show notes for you. Oh and I do have a blog post on all of this as well. If you want to see it all kind of written down instead of in podcast form. You can find that on my website corkandfizz.com and just click on Blog. I love producing this podcast for you every week, but here's the truth. It's not free. That's why I'm so grateful for sponsors like the following brands supporting me so that I can share everything I love about wine with you. If you're able show them some support back. I'll be honest, I never really believed chocolate could pair well with wine until I partnered with Bon Chocolates for a local event. Rasha, the owner, created four incredible truffles that matched perfectly with the wines we were tasting. Bon Chocolates is a European inspired chocolatier right here in the Seattle area making beautiful bonbons and confections with fine chocolate in all natural ingredients. They make the perfect gift. Visit their local shop in Bothel or order online at bonchocolates.com and use code corkandfizz10 for 10% off. Okay, the first one is not very surprising. It is from Germany as we were just talking about how they are much further ahead than the US. It is the Dr. Low Riesling. This is made by the very popular regular wine producer Dr. Lucen, Dr. Lowe, Dr. Lucent. Get it. Riesling is one of the best options for a non alcoholic wine as it's naturally higher acidity, lower alcohol, very aromatic and these are things that all persist while the lower alcohol goes even lower, but they persist in a non alcoholic wine. I bought this wine at my local non alcoholic bottle shop called Cheeky and Dry here in Seattle for about $25. But at the end of telling you my six recommendations, I'm also going to share an online resource where you can buy a lot of these wines. Okay, the second wine that I would recommend non alcoholic is called Sea Monster Tidal Wave White. This is a white blend I think of Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. I did a little digging and that's the best I could find. And this is from California. This has a really good fruit flavor to it and fruity aroma. It doesn't have that funky non alcoholic wine flavor, which to me kind of tastes and smells like stale vinegar, versus instead, this wine had a really clear aroma and flavor of peaches, which was really lovely. And this is one of the most cost effective non alcoholic wines I've ever had. It was about $16 per bottle. Again, also purchased at that local nonalcoholic bottle shop, Cheeky and Dry here in Seattle. And you'll notice these first two wines do not have bubbles. So look, I found wines that didn't have bubbles. That tastes good. The next ones will have bubbles because mostly sparkling, non alcoholic wine is definitely the best. Okay. Wine number three is Joyous J O Y U S Sparkling wine. And this one's extra fun because it's actually made here in Seattle. They do ship and it's made fairly well, fairly widely available, I believe across the US and the winery is female owned. I thought it had a really good green apple flavor and it seemed nicely balanced. It wasn't overly acidic, which I think can be a problem with non alcoholic wine. Purchase this one for about $29 at Cheeky and Dry. Okay, next up, we are moving into the category because if it's sparkling and it's a, it's almost always probably gonna taste a little better when it comes to non alcoholic wines. You will notice by the time we get to the end of this. I do not have a non alcoholic red wine recommendation. I'm so sorry. I have tried, I promise. I have tried many of them and none of them are good enough for me to want to drink again. So they didn't make the list. So these next three are sparkling wine number four. This one's actually my favorite. Maybe I should have listed these in like my order of my favorite to my least favorite. But this one is my favorite. I just tried it this year, like a month ago and I love it. It is domain idam n0 sparkling. And this is a sparkling de alcoholized rose from Spain made from the Aran grape variety. And it's super unique in that they infuse the wine with rose petals before bottling. And I really think that makes a huge difference in the wine. It had these really amazing floral notes with a lighter fruit flavor too. Like it just added a complexity. Like I find many non alcoholic wines kind of just have like one flavor and that's like some sort of fruit. And this one actually got to add a little of that. Floral note. And that was made it really good and really interesting when you're mostly just drinking sugary, juicy type, you know, drinks this one as well. Still not super expensive. Was only about $27 at my local bottle shop. And again, I'm going to give you an online resource at the end of this where you can find a lot of these wines if you're not located in Seattle. Okay. Our next wine also comes out of Germany. It is the Heinz Wagner Black Forest Na Bubbles. And similar to the last one that I was just talking about, this one is also infused to add more flavor. So there's an extract that is made out of wild berries and local herbs that has been added, I guess. So it's not infused, it has an actual extract added to it for additional complexity and aroma. So it's a little on the higher end. I paid $38 per bottle on this and it's available online from a wonderful German wine importer, Lisa Toupetz. She's been on the show before, so if you've listened to some past episodes, you may have heard her. You can find this wine@toupetswine.com it is T U P E T Z wine.com and she has a discount code you can use code CORK FIZZ15 for 15% off three or more bottles. And that's beyond just the Non alco. Okay. And finally, wine number six, Woody's Sparkling. This is probably the like most well distributed. I've even found this wine on Amazon and I actually purchased it at my local wine shop where they had it kind of up at the table as some other options. So this is made by a third generation farmer in California. It is a combination. So this is one where they ferment the first grape. So they fermented a bunch of Chardonnay and then afterwards added a field blend of red grapes that were unfermented. So they're kind of trying to add some flavor with this. I think it totally worked. And this is one that I grab very frequently, especially if I'm having friends over because I know I can just grab it the local wine shop. All right. And like I said, I purchased I think almost all of these in Seattle besides the Heinz Wagner. But I know not everybody listening to this lives in Seattle. So one great resource if you are based in the US for looking for any of these wines is the Zero Proof online shop. This podcast is not sponsored by them. I am not sponsored by them. I'm not getting paid to say this. I just found this resource and found I think almost all of these wines except for the Heinz Wagner on that website. So you can go to the0proof.com to find many of these non alcoholic wines. All right. Well I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine podcast. If you loved it as much as I did, would so appreciate it if you could take a quick second rate it, leave a review and share it with a friend. Especially if you have a friend who's exploring non alcoholic options. And if you want to support this podcast even more and help support me financially in creating this podcast for you every week you can become a paid subscriber. There is a link in the show notes. It'll say become a paid subscriber or become a paid paid supporter of the podcast. And it's basically just a small payment monthly $10 or less. And that will help me continue to produce this podcast and get you episodes. Free episodes every single week. And of course you get a little bonus. You'll get a shout out in the next episode that I record. And if you are doing 10 or more a month, you will get to choose an episode topic for me to talk about. Thanks again for listening. And if you want to learn more about wine, come follow me at corkandfizz on Instagram. Cheers.