How are non-alcoholic wines made?

It’s no secret now that alcohol free wines have been popping off lately in the drinks scene. But, if you’re just hearing about it now, don’t be so quick to dismiss it as just grape juice or something. The true alcohol free wine is actual fermented wine that is then de-alcoholised. Great alcohol free wine has all the flavours, structure, and taste as alcoholic wine would, just without the ethanol. Here’s the quick low-down on how non-alcoholic wine is made.

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1. Vacuum Distillation

This one is pretty simple. Once the wine is fermented as usual, it is then heated up so that the ethanol is distilled out. However, when wine is heated, the oxidation from this process can ruin the flavour. So it is usually done in a vacuum, which lowers the alcohol's boiling temperature decreases, and the wine can be distilled at much lower temperatures so that the flavour isn't ruined.

2. Spinning Cones

This is the most popular method, used by much-loved brands like Mcguigan Zero and Edenvale (and for good reason - it's super effective in keeping the original flavours and aromas).

Here's how Edenvale gets their unique flavours:

1. A normal wine is crafted using traditional winemaking techniques

2. The wine is passed through the custom-modified Spinning Cone Column, where it is rotated and heated on low, to gently extract the bouquet (the wine’s aromas, fragrance, smell, odours or scents).

3. With the same Spinning Column, the alcohol is removed from the remaining wine.

4. The bouquet that was extracted earlier is blended back into the de-alcoholised wine to return the bold flavours of their alcoholic counterparts into the drink.

Et voila! An alcohol-free chardonnay!