How Do They Make Alcohol-Free Wine?

February 9, 2023 Gemma Mills

“Alcohol-free wine? Isn’t that just grape juice?!” I’m sure you’ve either said that or heard it at some point. And, if you have never tasted an alcohol-free wine, it might be a fair thing to say. However, if you’ve tasted a good alcohol-free wine, such as those from Noughty, it tastes nothing like grape juice and everything like wine. So how exactly do they make non-alcoholic wine?

The Ingredients

The base of any wine, alcohol-free or not, is grapes. The moment when these grapes are picked and the location where they are grown changes the flavour profile of the wine.

White wine grapes are de-stemmed and crushed very quickly. This way they can be separated from the tannins in the skins of the grapes. Red wine grapes, on the other hand, are left in contact with the skins for longer so that they absorb the dryer, more bitter flavour of the skins.

Fermentation and Making Wine

Most non-alcoholic wine is fermented and made into wine with alcohol, and then the alcohol is removed. So the next step in making alcohol-free wine is to ferment the grapes.

When grapes are fermented, yeast is added, this helps convert all of the sugars into alcohol. Less sugary wines are fermented for longer, whilst sweeter wines are quicker so that not all the sugar is converted. This process can last from around 10 days to a month.

After this, the wine is aged in bottles, stainless steel tanks or oak barrels. Ageing intensifies the flavour, and the storage method and length of time taken determine the flavour profile of the wine. Ageing can take any time between a few months and 2 years.

It is at this stage that alcoholic wine is bottled. However, to make alcohol-free wine, you must now remove the alcohol.

Removing The Alcohol

Removing the alcohol is the trickiest part of making alcohol-free wine. Alcohol carries flavour very strongly. It adds texture and a little bite in the drink. So removing alcohol affects the drinking experience.

There are three main methods used to remove alcohol from wine to make non-alcoholic wine.

Vacuum Distillation

Vacuum distillation is a way of removing the alcohol from wine without needing to heat it to very high temperatures. Heating the wine too much can damage the flavour and aroma of the drink.

In vacuum distillation, the suction of the vacuum increases and this decreases the boiling temperature of the wine. That way you can heat it to temperatures of only 21℃ and still remove the alcohol, keeping the rest of the wine intact.

Reverse Osmosis

The process of reverse osmosis is basically using a very fine filter to remove the alcohol. This works by using extremely high pressure to push wine through a very fine membrane that only allows water and alcohol to pass through.

Once you have removed all the alcohol and water you are left with a non-alcoholic wine concentrate. Water is then added back in to make an alcohol-free wine.

Spinning Core Technology

Spinning core technology is used to break apart each individual component of a wine to be later added back together. This is done by passing the drink through a vertical stainless steel column with a rotating central shaft, that gently removes one aspect at a time.

Once they have all been separated, the alcohol is fully removed and everything is put back together again. This method allows you to fully keep the aroma and flavouring without the alcohol.

Explore The World of Alcohol-Free Drinks With JOMO

So now you can see why alcohol-free wine is not just grape juice, maybe you are excited to explore the world of alcohol-free drinks.

Then the best place to start is by signing up for a JOMO subscription box. You will regularly receive a box filled to the brim with delicious alcohol-free goodies, including all the ingredients for alcohol-free cocktails, tasty bar snacks and a range of ready-to-drink alcohol-free drinks of all sorts.