Learn exactly how alcohol-free wine is made and how it’s different from grape juice.
Plus, shop great-tasting ones to try.
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Julia Littauer is the co-founder of alcohol-removed wine brand Sovi.
Tolu Obikunle is the CEO and founder of Sapiens, an alcohol-removed wine brand.
Hand on Heart is part of Miller Family Wines.
Jonathan Nagy is a winemaker at Hand on Heart (part of Miller Family Wines), which produces both traditional wine and alcohol-removed wine.
Yoko Sato is the head winemaker for alcohol-removed of Freixenet.
She lives in Spain.
(This is a no-judgment zone, right?)
(Comparatively, a glass or wine has roughly one gram per serving.)
Then I discovered alcohol-removed wine, also called de-alcoholized wine.
As the name suggests, this is legit wine with the alcohol removed.
When its well-made, it tastes just like traditional wine.
(Just like with real wine, there are great-tasting brands and not-so great tasting ones out there.)
My grand gesture was anti-climatic.
Jonathan Nagy is a winemaker at Hand on Heart (part of Miller Family Wines), which produces both traditional wine and alcohol-removed wine.
Oh thanks for bringing that, but we already have the Welchs, my dad said.
But this is different!
It tastes like wine!
Once my parents actually popped open a bottle and tried it, they agreed.
But the difference isnt just in the taste; they are made entirely different, too.
So, I got five experts in the space to explain it.
As you might expect, both involve grapes.
With juice, grapes are crushed and blended into a liquid.
A lot of time on juice labels, youll see grape juice from concentrate on the ingredients list.
This means excess water from the grapes was removed, making the juice more concentrated.
Brands can choose to incorporate other ingredients for taste, color, and texture.
The exact fermentation process varies depending on the bang out of wine, but all wine is fermented.
During fermentation, the yeast converts most of the sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
This is exactly why de-alcoholized wine is not grape juice.
You ferment it just like regular wine and then remove the alcohol.
Wine gets so much of its aromatic properties during fermentation, she says.
In turn, this greatly affects how the end result tastes.
Okay, so grape juice, wine, and alcohol-removed wine all start with grapes.
Grape juice isnt fermented but the other two are.
But that isnt the only difference.
In grape juice, the backbone of sweetness is often sugar.
For us, its the grapes, Nagy says.
Even many full-fledged wines with alcohol have a lot of sugar added in, but we dont do that.
This highlights another big difference between grape juice and alcohol-removed wine: the sugar content.
The total sugar in Sovis red blend?
But getting the desired end resulta drink that still tastes like wine and isnt full of sugarisnt easy.
Then, the vacuum distillation removes the alcohol by boiling it at a low temperature.
Littauer explains that its very important that the temperature sticks to 85F.
Littauer says that, just like with wine, the grape quality comes through after the slow-boiling process.
Hand on Heart specifies thatthe machine they use is produced by BevZero.
This hunk of metal is seriously impressive.
Its able to separate out the molecules responsible for the wines aroma and flavor.
Then, theyre condensed and stored in a holding vessel.
Meanwhile, the rest of the liquid goes through another chamber, where the low-boiling process occurs.
This removes the alcohol.
Eventually, the molecules that were separated out are added back in.
Its a very gentle process, Nagy says.
We want the alcohol-removed wines to have these same qualities just like the [traditional] wines.
Nagy says getting all three perfect took several months.
So you do have to reconstruct it a bit.
She also says its filtered more than the wine to ensure there are no product-spoiling micro-organisms in it.
Can you see now how these drinks are definitely different from a glass of Juicy Juice?
Not that there is anything wrong with juiceespecially when its made fresh.
Just like graduating from the kids table at Thanksgiving, its time to upgrade whats in your glass too.
People are also more likely to recycle cans, she says.
Plus, how cute are they?
This one definitely delivers and also has hints of mango, peach, and apricot.
Freixenet Alcohol-Removed Sparkling White Wine $11.00
Celebrating something?
Pop a bottle of this sparkling white, produced in Spain.
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