The Winemaker Trying to Prove Wine Doesn't Need the Alcohol

What happens when you take a winemaker who never planned to work in alcohol-free wine, and hand him the job of making it actually taste like wine?

Aaron Milne fell into it almost by accident. A winery job during his studies happened to be run by the same people leading Australia's zero-alcohol scene, and a "one year, just to learn it" detour turned into a career. In this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with Aaron, winemaker for Eden Vale, to pull apart what actually happens when you strip the alcohol out of wine, and why it's so much harder than it sounds.

Aaron walks through the process, from the early days of simply boiling off the alcohol, to vacuum distillation, spinning cone columns, and now single-pass equipment that separates the essence, removes the alcohol and returns the flavour. But the technical side is only half the story. Alcohol carries weight, sweetness and length on the palate, and once it's gone, a wine can turn "fossil dry" almost overnight. Reds are the real test: strip the alcohol from a Cabernet and the tannins and colour compounds that depended on it start to fall apart, which is why Eden Vale's Coonawarra Cabernet is described as the Everest of the whole project.

The conversation also gets into the culture around no and low alcohol wine: why traditional wine drinkers have been resistant, the idea of "vinosity" as the actual goal, and the rise of the "zebra drinker" -- people who move between full-strength and zero wine in the same session rather than choosing one camp for good. Aaron also touches on where the category is heading, including the mid-strength range he thinks holds the most promise over the next five to ten years.

It's an honest, occasionally very funny look at one of the more overlooked corners of the Australian wine industry, and what it actually takes to make something that isn't wine taste like it belongs at the table with food anyway.

Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, SBS and Cabernet all make an appearance, alongside a story about a 98 Grange, a fire drum, and Snoop Dogg.

👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:

What's your take -- is alcohol-free wine a genuine alternative, or does wine need the alcohol to be wine? Drop it in the comments 👇

Go check out edenvalle.com.au

🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast

📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up

🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au

📩 info@thewinedup.com.au

We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷

## YouTube Chapters

00:00 Can Wine Still Be Wine Without the Alcohol?

0:56 Grange, Snoop Dogg and the Icebreaker Questions

5:59 How Aaron Fell Into Winemaking by Accident

8:03 Ending Up at the Frontier of Alcohol-Free Wine

10:33 Why Eden Vale Exists in the First Place

12:58 From Boiling It Out to Vacuum Distillation

16:12 The Real Fight Is Replacing What Alcohol Does

24:09 The Expensive Mistakes Along the Way

25:48 Why Whites Are Easy and Reds Are Brutal

32:53 Chasing Something Called "Vinosity"

36:14 The Rise of the Zebra Drinker

44:03 Taking On the Everest of Zero-Alcohol Wine

50:35 Where Low and No Alcohol Wine Is Headed Next

Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.   

Drink More, Try More, Learn More.