Are you sober curious? Questioning or changing one’s drinking habits can come from many sources. For example, you may notice unpleasant mental or physical effects from alcohol, ranging from sleepiness to anti-social behavior. Or, the choice may be circumstantial, like taking your turn as the designated driver or needing to abstain because of contraindications with certain medications. According to the World Health Organization, alcohol drinkers have decreased in numbers by 5% in the past two decades.
The trend to either eliminate or reduce imbibing alcoholic beverages seems to be fueled by the younger Millennials and Generation Z’s more health-conscious focus. Even if it only lasts for the first quarter of the new year (when we all vow to cut calories and exercise off those holiday pounds), taking a break from alcohol by either abstaining altogether or seeking out lower ABV beverages is an option many are taking.
Whether by encouraging complete abstention or cutting down on alcohol-by-volume, marketers are guiding consumers to different possibilities for wine, beer and spirits through a designation called “Better for You.” The official wine industry category that started to grow in Europe and parts of Asia around two years ago and is currently gaining traction in the U.S. is designated “no-low alcohol,” or Nolo. According to a study announced in February 2021 from ISWR Drinks Market Analysis, the Nolo category gained a 3% share within the total beverage alcohol market in 2020. Consumption of no- and low-alcohol products is forecasted to grow 30% by 2024.
What about wine?
Liz Thach, Ph.D., is a freelance wine writer, wine market expert, researcher and educator, specializing in wine business strategy, marketing and wine lifestyle. She has taught thousands of undergraduate and MBA students in her wine and wine management classes at Sonoma State University beginning in 2000. Among her many accolades is Distinguished Professor of Wine for Life granted by the California State University system.
“Two brands of reasonably priced no-alcohol wine—Fre and Ariel—have been available for as long as I have been drinking wine, at least 30 years,” Thach says. “They are the pioneers. However, the big issue that people have with no-alcohol wines is that they are too sweet. In classes, I can only give alcohol-free beverages to my students, and they have this same complaint. They want a drier, balanced wine that tastes good and goes well with food.”
According to Thach, low-calorie, low-alcohol wine is the “hot new trend,” and has been accelerating rapidly in the United States. Before she wrote her article for WineBusiness.com, “What is the Sweet Spot for Low Alcohol Wines?” in March 2021, she received samples of many brands and tasted them all to construct the accompanying low-alcohol wine chart. “Some were really good, some not so good, and all were inexpensive,” she reports. Thach says more and more wines are being introduced. “Every day people ask if they can ship me Nolo wine. I’m writing another article to review the newer brands.”
In the early part of the pandemic, a Wine Intelligence survey noted that 26% of Americans said they would “likely” buy low or no alcohol wines. But what is the ideal level of alcohol in a wine that is designated Better for You (BFY)?
In the same WineBusiness article, Thach writes that in 2006, the U.S. and E.U. signed a wine trade agreement that defined wine as having an actual alcohol content of not less than 7% and not more than 22%. Most wines made the U.S. averages between 12 and 15%. So, to get to the best definition of Low Alcohol Wine, Thach consulted several experts: Heidi Scheid, executive vice-president of Scheid Family Wines that created the Sunny with a Chance of Flowers brand; Jessica Tomei, winemaker of Cupcake LightHearted; and Alison Crowe, winemaker for Sea Wave wines.
The conclusion: many of the new wine brands fall into the “sweet spot” of between 7 and 10% alcohol per 5 ounces—the place where the product can taste and drink like a great wine but the sugar level, calories and carbs are significantly lower.
Alcohol removing technology
Perhaps surprisingly because they have been around for years, non-alcoholic wines were up in volume by nearly 37% in a March 2020 study, according to a NeilsenIQ Beverage Alcohol Update. Wines like Fre and Ariel are made using time-tested, traditional methods and after the juice is fermented, the alcohol is removed using either a gentle cold filtration process (reverse osmosis) or more vigorous “spinning cone” technology. The Ariel label, and its grocery store displays, declare that it meets the definition of a “dealcoholized” beverage, less than .5% alcohol. (That’s less than most orange juices or a kombucha drink).
Low-alcohol wines are made using the same kind of state-of-the-art technology to gradually remove the alcohol to the optimum point. Each winemaker’s goal is to finesse the process to achieve the rich flavors, aromas, health benefits and allure of premium wine. Since alcohol does lend texture and body, Nolo wines are lighter, smoother and easier to drink, but less robust than their traditional counterparts. One taster compared the mouthfeel of a 7% ABV wine to drinking 2% milk vs. whole milk.
High-end grape juice
Another way to enjoy the bounty of Wine Country vineyards is to skip the fermentation process altogether and opt for pure juice. Those under the legal drinking age want and deserve to be included in life’s celebratory occasions. So do our friends and guests whose cultural or religious beliefs require planning beverage menus that include alternatives.
Wine judge and connoisseur of the grape Liz Thach is also a mother who, years ago when her daughter was 6, brought the girl along when she visited Navarro Vineyards & Winery in Mendocino County. There they looked forward to drinking together “absolutely beautiful grape juice.”
According to 36-year tasting room veteran Bill Mitchell, Navarro’s first grape juice was made in 1980 by owner Ted Bennett because his son was allergic to milk. “Ted initially thought the juice was just for kids,” Mitchell says. “But then he sent some samples to his friend [Berkeley restaurateur] Alice Waters to get her opinion and she ended up buying 70 of his first 80 cases produced. It’s been a few years since we talked to Alice, but Chez Panisse still purchases it, so someone still loves it.”
The Navarro juice comes in a real wine bottle, with a real cork and a real capsule, and sells for $15. The Gewürztraminer Grape Juice is the same natural juice that, when fermented, becomes the winery’s Gewürztraminer wine. The juice has always had a loyal following of guests who discovered it either at a tasting onsite or in restaurants. Mitchell says the pandemic affected sales only in that “2021 was the first year we ran out of juice in the summer and people were clamoring for it.”
Besides their initial Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir grape juices, since 1992 Navarro has offered “Verjus” (the green juice from Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, or Pinot Noir; the varietals change from vintage to vintage). Fruit-tart verjus is an upscale replacement for lemon juice or balsamic vinegar in recipes. A traditional French preparation, American chefs favor it because of its assertive and aromatic flavor. Navarro makes 300 cases of Verjus and 1,500 each of Gewürz and Pinot Noir. “For Verjus, we always use first-crop fruit, never second-crop fruit,” adds Mitchell, “which is the secret to why its flavor is so lemony and tart.”
…And more grape juice
About 10 years ago, the winemakers at Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga welcomed the challenge (and customer demand) to offer a non-alcoholic grape juice alternative as unique and delicious as the wines from their distinguished vineyards.
“We’ve now mastered how to make these juices true to varietal flavors and aromas,” says Director of Winemaking Brooks Painter. “They are produced from the same quality premium grapes that go into our wines and in much the same way.” Winemaker Peter Velleno adds, “We harvest a few days early to provide a base of acidity. The clusters are hand-harvested, delivered to the crush pad where they are destemmed and pressed; then the juice is chilled to about 32 degrees. We skip the step of adding yeast to convert the grape sugars to alcohol, and the result is a superior unadulterated juice with surprisingly age-ability of up to two years.”
The fresh, unpasteurized Castello di Amorosa juices are presented in 750 ml screwcap bottles and sell for $14 exclusively at the winery tasting room and on the website. The winemakers produce the juices in ample quantities: 5,619 cases of Muscat Canelli Grape Juice (2019 100% Muscat Canelli Grape Juice, 100% Muscat Canelli, sourced from vineyards in Santa Barbara, Solano and Lake counties); 1,132 cases of: 2019 Sparkling Red Blend Grape Juice (90% Gamay, 5% Grenache, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon), sourced from Solano and Napa counties; 705 cases of 2020 Gewurztraminer Grape Juice (100% Gewurztraminer from Anderson Valley, Mendocino County).
Definitely not grocery store juice-in-a-box, these classy wine look-alikes are perfect for designated drivers, guests who don’t drink alcohol, pregnant women, and children who want to be part of the festivities just like everyone else. These are grape juices to be snobbish about and a great addition to the “no” half of the Nolo category.
LightHearted wines
Since graduating with a Viticulture & Enology degree from U.C. Davis in 2001, Jessica Tomei has amassed a long list of international and Northern California vineyard experience in her “true calling.” In 2011, Tomei joined Naked Wines in Kenwood, until becoming director of international winemaking for Cupcake Vineyards in the Livermore Valley in late 2013. The Cupcake brand is part of The Wine Group, which made her director of coastal winemaking in late 2014 and four years later, senior director of that unit. She is currently the senior director of winemaking for The Wine Group and an enthusiastic advocate for the low-alcohol brand Cupcake LightHearted.
“We launched LightHearted in July 2020 with four varietals: Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Rosé and Pinot Noir, then added Sauvignon Blanc early in 2021. We are on pace to sell in excess of a quarter-million cases in 2021, with IRI showing Cupcake Lighthearted as the #1 Better for You bottled wine in the category.” (Information Resources, Inc.—or IRI— is an industry-standard data provider that tracks store-level wine sales.)
“When consumers try it, they love it,” Tomei continues. “LightHearted enjoys high repeat rates in the $8 to $12 premium brand segment, including Cupcake.” She backs up her statement by quoting a 26 % repeat rate for LightHearted in 2021 versus industry benchmarks that range between 15 and 20%. (A repeat rate indicates the percentage of customers that purchase another bottle after their first purchase.)
Such positive consumer response has prompted a national advertising campaign for LightHearted in 2022, both digital and television, with a 30-second spot touting “All the Taste, 80 Little Calories.”
In a recently-observed wine display in a major Safeway, all the LightHearted bottles wore a necker promoting 80 calories;<1 g sugar; 8% acc/vol, and explaining in small type: “per 5 fl. oz.”
Besides creating poetic notes for the five LightHearted wines, Tomei wants to get a glass into your hands. “People enjoy wine because of the great taste, so anytime we can get them to taste the product, we will,” the winemaker says. “Besides our educational ads, we have in-store demos and out-of-store event opportunities. We are planning a major national event sponsorship to continue to meet our joyfully active consumer target where they play. As the number one BFY wine, we see our role as introducing consumers to and growing the category.”
Sea Wave Wines
Alison Crowe is a sought-after wine industry speaker, columnist, blogger and innovator who holds three degrees from U.C. Davis (fermentation science, Spanish and an MBA). She is presently the director of winemaking and a founding partner at Napa-based Plata Wine Partners. The company is a wine and case goods supplier to a who’s who of wineries up and down the state, making bulk wine and developing its own brands. The company’s custom and private-label customers include Costco, Bev Mo, Total Wine and others. With grape sourcing from its own certified sustainable vineyards, Plata Wine Partners grows and makes coastal California wines from Santa Barbara to the Napa Valley.
In 2020, after a year of R & D, Plata Wine Partners did a soft launch of Sea Wave in 250 ml cans at 7% alcohol and 70 calories. Crowe started with her 2019 vintage “using the very, very gentle process of reverse osmosis, experimenting with a gradual reduction of alcohol to get to ‘the sweet spot’ level that would lower the amount of ethanol, yet preserve many of the aromas, mouthfeel and finish that let us know that we were still drinking wine. This is not water; this is not a cocktail.”
As a small nimble company, the staff of eight were able to extensively scan social media to see what was being advertised and talked about. “In listening to consumers,” Crowe says, “we found that especially the Gen Zs and Millennials have an increased desire to know what goes into their alcoholic beverages and are interested in having drinks for lots of different occasions—camping, poolside, at a concert. We started to think that the traditional wine bottle, while great, was excluding us from different wine consumption circumstances.”
She also notes that with the pandemic and changes in laws that permit cocktails to leave the premises with restaurant meals, single-serve wine is ideal for take-out. Cans permit a group of individuals who prefer red, white, or rosé to enjoy their personal choice. Smaller serving sizes also allow a wine lover to try more new things.
When asked why Sea Wave packaging touts the contents as “gluten-free and vegan friendly” when you don’t usually think of those ingredients in wine, Crowe says, “Plata’s wines have always been gluten-free and vegan, we’ve just never specifically called it out on the label. Now that consumers are asking for that information, we wanted to make sure it was readily available to them. So, it’s not that I’m just jumping on some marketing bandwagon. It’s more about consumer education. People aren’t always aware of what their beverages contain; many know that beer has gluten. It’s our intention to meet consumers where they are, reassuring them and informing them, because these are the things they care about.
“At 46, I’ve been making wine for over half my life and maybe sometimes in the wine business we are a little behind in our assumptions,” Crowe adds. “Who knew that people don’t know wine is gluten-free, for example? So, for many of our wines, we have been adding more information to our labels.”
On the colorful Life’s a Wave, Catch It packaging is this instruction: Our wine is best served cold. Yes, even the Pinot Noir. Crowe explains, “Just as you can’t randomly buy wine off the bulk market and turn it into something that will still be compelling in the glass, I had to use the best grape sources for Sea Wave. I chose our vineyard sites which I knew would develop their aromas and flavor components correctly at lower sugar levels (lower brixes translates to lower alcohol). We were always keeping in mind the end result, and also taking into consideration that in this more casual use (often the reds and whites travel in the same cooler) our Pinot Noir would end up being chilled, so we accounted for that.”
Crowe says that she will continue to promote Sea Wave through all digital media assets available by forming strategic partnerships with market influencers and sending out samples. She also plans to follow up on interest from restaurant chains as well as convenience stores and retailers that are promoting the BFY category of products. “Our marketing team and Plata’s VP of sales and marketing will be spearheading this effort,” she says.
“There is another phrase ‘Better for me, better for we’ meaning that people are searching out products that are better for their own well-being and better for the environment and planet,” Crowe adds. “Our vineyards are 100% certified sustainable and now we have low alcohol, low-calorie Sea Wave Chardonnay, Rosé and Pinot Noir. We will be investing in that brand and potentially more low-alcohol products in the future. I am really bullish on this category.”
The Low-Alcohol Wine Trail
About three years ago, the leadership at Jordan Vineyards & Winery in Alexander Valley brainstormed a project to create a wine tasting map based not on sub-regions or numbers, but on style. The Lower Alcohol Wine Map they created, now in its third edition, includes 38 wineries (76% located in Sonoma County and 24% in Napa, including some sparkling wine producers). This retooling of traditional tasting-route maps pinpoints locations that have wine of “moderate alcohol levels” (14% and under) and exhibit “elegance”—an emphasis on fruit and acidity over tannin and alcohol. It is all about hospitality and pairing with food that is part of the old-world inspiration.
“We thought this was a missing tool for consumers to use, because guests who love the Jordan style had asked us for recommendations so they might sample others like it,” explains Emma Mrkonic, Jordan’s communications manager.
“I am of the Millennial cohort and I feel we are more adventurous about trying new things, especially ready-to-drink,” says 30-year-old Mrkonic. “Everything from beer to wine to kombucha to CBD-infused beverages and seltzers. Personally, when I shop, I am looking for something that is stylistically on the lighter side with lower alcohol—not necessarily zero alcohol, just lower. If I see a wine label that says 14.6%, it’s probably not going to be a style I like.”
Low-Alcohol Wines
By Jennie Orvino
As someone with a propensity for migraine headaches since childhood, I’ve always been leery of alcohol’s aftereffects, despite its real-time pleasures. I prefer the lower ABV of bubbly and beer and leave wine mostly for pairing with food because I’ve learned to be more sensitive to my body and my health. I’m not in the marathon-running crowd; I’m a semi-retired Baby Boomer trying to maintain optimum weight and vitality. Thus, I was game for testing the benefits of low-cal, low-alcohol wines as well as writing about them.
The occasion was a holiday visit with my daughter who prefers to drink Chardonnay. I brought two bottles of this varietal for us to taste. We started with Cupcake LightHearted. It was crisp and fruit-forward with a hint of pineapple; Rachel pronounced it a little tart. The second bottle we unscrewed—Sunny with a Chance of Flowers—provided a much-needed sentiment on a gloomy, rainy day. This Chardonnay had a round, toasted oak flavor that we both preferred to the more angular flare of the LightHearted. I thought both wines had distinct and attractive personalities at 8o calories and 8% alcohol. Both went well with the ham my son-in-law prepared on the Traeger pellet grill. The LightHearted held its ground with the smokiness of the ham and roasted butternut squash; the Sunny complemented the meat’s sweet bourbon maple glaze and the haricots verts.
Body effects: I felt neither sleepy nor dull. I enjoyed drinking these wines over several hours before and during dinner with no headache following, or the morning after. I decided “yes” to low alcohol wine to allow for long hours of relaxed imbibing!
My next tasting followed the arrival on my doorstep of a box the size of a Magnum. Inside were 4-packs of Sea Wave compliments of winemaker Alison Crowe—Rosé, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in cans. My initial experience of wine in aluminum did not disappoint. Sipping straight from the pop-top, I concluded that Sea Wave 7% ABV Chardonnay is as good as any Chardonnay at its price point. The Rosé, with a delightful bouquet of quince and green melon and exquisitely pale peach color, was my favorite. Each can contains 230 ml (about one and a half glasses). Sea Wave was introduced in this format and will remain easy to open and transport safely, whether stored in a daypack for a hike to the ocean, to a party at poolside, or around a firepit.
When this assignment began, I took Dr. Liz Thach’s box chart of low-alcohol wines with me to Bottle Barn. Only two of the brands she listed were in stock and the staff member pointed out what he said was the “most complex” of the choices, a Kim Crawford Illuminate at $17 and 7% ABV. I sipped this Sauvignon Blanc as I prepared mushroom risotto and had another glass to accompany my meal.
The wine grew more companionable as it opened up and was very pleasing to a friend who dropped by for a surprise visit. The more we talked, poured, and, frankly, shared a sativa pre-roll, the more “illuminated” I felt. Probably the most important benefit of the low-alcohol Sauvignon Blanc was that combining it with cannabis did not have the typical dizzying effect on me. (Another point in favor of the Nolo category!)
I have a very average wine palate. Still, feeling light and relaxed even after several sessions of white wine drinking proved this experiment a worthy one.
