As the crisis-ridden wine industry continues to reinvent itself, there is no end to the line-up of initiatives designed to appeal to new consumers seeking to moderate their alcohol consumption. But how do you make low-alcohol wines in an era of climate change? Techniques include reintroducing forgotten grape varieties, agroforestry and partial dealcoholisation, but is lower alcohol really the Holy Grail?
In just a decade, low-alcohol wines – i.e. those basically under 12% ABV – have become modern-day obsessions in the wine industry. They have two goals – one is to combat climate change, which is pushing alcohol levels up to 14% ABV or more, and the other is to adapt to the needs of younger, more female consumers with a different set of aspirations.
When alcohol gets the thumbs down
Time and time again we hear the same old story – the consumer has changed. People drink less wine with food and more outside of meals, and early-drinking fruity wines are the preferred choice. Between 1960 and 2020, wine consumption in France plummeted by 70% according to research by Vin & Société and the national appellation marketing board organisation CNIV.
New findings by the 2023 SOWINE/DYNATA barometer suggest that 29% of the French “seem increasingly receptive to lower-alcohol or alcohol-free beverages”. The trend is stronger among women (33%) than men (25%), and young people more than older generations, affecting 45% of 18-25 year-olds compared with just 18% of 50-65 year-olds.
Why is that? To “drink less alcohol”, of course (45%), and “be mindful of their health” (39%), but also, wait for it, because they say they like the “flavour” (37%) of the drinks. Yes, you read that right, and this is when it becomes interesting.
So can low alcohol drinks actually taste good? Conventional wisdom says no. Alcohol, as we know, is one of the linchpins of a wine’s balance, with acidity (for whites and rosés), and acidity and tannins (for reds). A lack of alcohol is immediately perceptible on the palate, creating a flat, hollow feeling lacking depth. So the hot topic among the wine community is knowing how to produce wines that are both good AND balanced, under 12% ABV.
Experiments across the spectrum
This involves work in the vineyard and/or the winery, using traditional or heirloom grape varieties or hybrids whose juicy grapes are naturally lower in sugar. Other options include harvesting fruit slightly under ripe, reintroducing trees using agroforestry techniques to try and enhance freshness, and varying the way the vines are pruned and their canopy management and shade for the grapes in a bid to moderate sugar production. There is also whole-cluster fermentation, temperature controlled tanks and, for the more intervention-minded producers, partially dealcoholising the wines.
In Saint-Christoly-de-Blaye, Thomas Novoa took over Château Les Garelles and its 44-hectare vineyard from his father. An agricultural engineer and winemaker, he converted the vines to organic before switching to input-free winemaking in 2013. So what method does he choose to harvest his 9% ABV label, an amazing single varietal Carménère? “I prune late, in order to postpone the growing cycle, and harvest early by machine. Low-temperature vatting is very short and alcohol fermentation with native yeast lasts six days. There is very little pumping over and tannin extraction is low – my aim is to retain primary aromas, though the wines do undergo malolactic fermentation”.
On the clay-limestone vineyard sites in Pic Saint-Loup inherited from his father – Domaine Beauthorey, which was among the biodynamic pioneers in the area – Victor Beau at Domaine Inebriati (6 hectares) produces a very rare single varietal Terret Bourret under the VDF designation. This native grape variety was once extensively uprooted, but despite the hot, dry climate, it yields fairly low alcohol content, just like Beau’s single varietal Ugni blanc. “Unlike Marsanne or Roussanne, Ugni blanc and Terret are fully ripe at 11% ABV”, he stresses. “And as my vines are one hundred years old, with a well-developed root system, you get a unique mineral, lively and saline finish on the palate”.
Should it be inferred then that the answer here is to replant these two previously abandoned grape varieties? “There is some truth in that”, concedes Beau, “but the main reason I can successfully achieve such low alcohol content is because my vines are old and are managed in a particular way. My 70-year-old Terret vines have been through so many summer droughts that they can self-regulate”.
‘The alcohol content of the past, the pleasure of today’
In the Périgord region, Muriel Landat-Pradeaux who runs Domaine du Siorac – with around thirty hectares – launched the low-sulphite organic label P’tit Nouveau last year, which has now been renamed Mérilha. The wine is made entirely from Mérille, “a forgotten grape variety, from vines here that are 50 years old, which produces a very light, juicy wine with an ABV of 9%. This is just the start – we produced 1,200 bottles in 2022 and 3,600 bottles this year”, says Landat-Pradeaux, with obvious pride. On the label, the baseline summarises the promise perfectly: ‘The alcohol content of the past, the pleasure of today’.
Interestingly, even the industry behemoths are getting in on the game. One example is Plaimont, a key player for wines from South-West France, grouping together 800 families of winegrowers and 5,300 hectares under vine. Its single varietal Colombard 2022 Elia Côtes de Gascogne label is naturally low in alcohol, at 9% ABV. The wine retails for €7.60 on the company’s website and there is even a canned version (€3.30 per 25 cl can).
Another example is L’Imprévu by Domaine Tariquet, which retails for around €9 online and has an ABV of just 9.5%. It took the company over ten years to develop this dry blend of Riesling and Ugni blanc – marketed as VDF – without using dealcoholisation.
And they’re not the only ones going down the low-alcohol route – producers’ organisations are also trying their hand at it. In Touraine, for instance, the local producers’ organisation is readying to experiment with six grape varieties such as Grolleau, Meslier Saint-François and Floréal, which were outlawed by production specifications a decade ago, in order to provide an alternative to Sauvignon which has lost nearly 3 points of total acidity and gained around 50 grams of sugar over the past 30 years.
But what about partial dealcoholisation?
This is the joker being bandied about by some producers. Without going into the technical details – which are fairly complex – it is technically possible to reduce a wine’s alcohol content, broadly speaking by applying reverse osmosis. From partial vacuum evaporation to the use of membrane techniques (filtration) and distillation, the methods are legal, with some strings attached.
Until recently, Europe had authorised the partial dealcoholisation of wine for nearly fifteen years (as per Regulation n°606 dated 10 July 2009). But alcohol content could be reduced by no more than 20% and the resultant wine was not allowed to have an ABV of under 8.5% or 9% (depending on the wine region). Leveraging this possibility was Domaine de la Colombette, an impressive winery with nearly 300 hectares under vine on the outskirts of Béziers in the South of France. The winery pioneered dealcoholisation and the use of resistant grape varieties nationwide and produced a 9% ABV label called Plume under the Pays d’Hérault PGI across the three colours. On its website, the Pugibet family refer to “alcohol correction” that “reveals the full aromatic potential of the wine and enhances freshness”.
Two years ago, however, Europe decided to push the envelope and came up with Regulation 2021/2117 dated 2 December 2021 which defines the new 2023 Common Agricultural Policy and allows producers to dealcoholise more – so much so that they only have to retain 0.5% in the end product. Consequently, at the end of January 2021, fourth-generation winegrower Vincent Pugibet founded the start-up Moderato with two marketing specialists – Sébastien Thomas, formerly with Pernod Ricard and the descendant of a family of winegrowers and distillers in Cognac, and Fabien Marchand-Cassagne, who has done stints with Danone, Coca Cola and Unilever. He was also responsible for launching Innocent smoothies in Europe. Their Moderato range features a drink made from fermented grape juice, available as white, rosé and sparkling, with an ABV of around 5%. Cue gasps of horror from the wine community.
Does removing then adding ingredients undermine the inherent nature of wine?
But when you lose so much alcohol content, isn’t there a risk of also losing quality of flavour? “The whole issue is about what happens after the dealcoholisation process”, rightly stresses Christian Paly, chairman of the wine and beverage alcohol appellation board at INAO. When you reduce alcohol, the structure and aromas of the initial wine are modified. “Wines where the alcohol content has been significantly reduced no longer resemble the original aromatic profile. So sugar has to be reintroduced – sucrose or concentrated must is added – or even exogenous aromatic components”. Some winegrowers believe that this is tantamount to undermining the inherent nature of wine. Drinkability at whatever the cost becomes a convenient excuse. “If you dealcoholise then flavour the wine by adding something that comes from somewhere else, you get soda!” quips Bordeaux’s Thomas Novoa.
There’s also the issue of misleading consumers about the product. “Is a wine with an ABV of 5 or 6% still a wine? The product should have been called something else”, laments the graduate from SupAgro Montpellier, despite having his feet firmly in the modern day. “A grape-based alcoholic drink, for example”. He quotes the definition of wine provided by the International Organisation of Vine & Wine in 1924: “a product produced entirely from the total or partial alcoholic fermentation of fresh grapes, crushed or not, or grape must”. “Unfortunately, it’s too late”, explains Christian Paly. “In the 2021 European Regulation, the EU legislator ignored the definition itself of wine”.
Unfortunately, it would seem that the only thing people agree about is the mandatory statements. “INAO launched its strategic thinking process in the autumn of 2022 and should issue its opinion at the start of 2024”, concludes Paly. If in the future advanced partial dealcoholisation (under 9% or 8.5% ABV depending on the wine region) were authorised for Protected Geographical Indication or Protected Designation of Origin wines, “this would be included in the production specifications for appellations”, and “it would be mandatory to state on the label – partially dealcoholised wine”. Who knows? Will we see popping up on supermarket shelves next year an AOC Côtes du Rhône label next to an AOC Côtes du Rhône sporting the statement ‘partially dealcoholised wine’?
By
Tina Meyer 
