Alcohol free red wine: is it a thing?

The pleasures of life are not such unless savoured in all their completeness. Drinking a glass of full-bodied red, perhaps coming from organic and biodynamic agriculture, helps us savour the wine in all its aromatic naturalness, and feeling a little tipsy after a few glasses can be fun. However, alcohol intake can be harmful to some, while others may simply not like it; this does not mean that they have to stop enjoying a good glass of wine at mealtimes or in the evening: luckily there is alcohol free red wine, which yes, is a thing, and it might also be a healthier alternative to classic red wine.

Alcohol free red wine: is it wine, though?

That’s right: alcohol-free red wine exists and is also quite simple to find, as large supermarkets – one example above all is Tesco – offer their alternative to the most classic wine on the market. Once this thing is clear, the next question is: but is it a wine for real?
In the era of drinks and foods surrogates, this is a more than legitimate question. You will be happy to discover that yes, it is real wine, simply manipulated with a process called de-alcoholisation.

The de-alcoholisation

The de-alcoholization is a well-known technique also used to create, for example, non-alcoholic beer, and consists of processes to which the ready and aged beverage is subjected: in practice, by keeping the wine at low temperatures, a process is triggered which separates the alcohol from the rest of the drink; during this phase, fortunately, the taste, aroma and beneficial components of the wine remain intact. The process brings the wine to an alcohol percentage of less than 0.05%, which is the minimum possible. Therefore, after the de-alcoholisation we can sip in our glass a wine that still maintains the original taste and aroma, the benefits and a really minimal alcohol percentage; however, it is good to remember that non-alcoholic wine, despite the definition, is not completely alcohol-free.

The benefits of alcohol-free red wine

As mentioned above, the de-alcoholised wine maintains both the unique taste and the beneficial substances, so it can be consumed without too many regrets. Regarding its benefits, it is interesting to read a research run by the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, ​​which subjected 67 men with diabetes or risk of heart attack to a rather particular experiment: it divided the patients into three groups, the first of which drank 10 ounces of red wine, the second 10 ounces of non-alcoholic red wine, and finally the third 3 ounces of gin every day for four weeks. After four weeks, patients were asked to change drinks, and at eight weeks to change again. After being observed drinking all types of beverages over the course of four weeks each, it was clear that during the weeks of consumption of alcohol-free wine, the blood pressure was incredibly lower, also lessening the risk of heart attacks.
Therefore, the beneficial elements contained in the wine, added to the lack of alcohol, actually bring substantial benefits to human health.

So: is alcohol-free red wine good for you?

The answer is yes, it totally is.
For the moment we don’t have bottles of alcohol-free red wine, but if you feel the need to start today to find a healthy alternative to industrial wine, try one of our bottles of organic or biodynamic wine: you can start by tasting the special selection of natural wines we have created for you!