Despite the tremendous momentum organic farming, the wine industry is suffering. Six million hectoliters were distilled last year and around a hundred thousand hectares will be uprooted, or nearly 15% of the total surface area. The fault of the disenchantment which strikes the blood of the vine in France: less 70% in sixty years – the reds are struggling more than the others. To ward off the inexorable trend, initiatives are multiplying. Like, to regain the favor of female palates and millennials, breaking the codes of consumption to the point of developing alcohol-free wines. Enough to bring color back to our viticulture? Our guide.
The highest authorities in the wine sector have been facing a dilemma for several months. Faced with the tidal wave of new vintages with low ethylicity, or even no alcohol at all, the national committee of Protected Geographical Indications for Wines accepted the principle, at the beginning of April, of being able to dealcoholize up to six degrees of wines under PGI. While waiting for the first Pays d’Oc or Val de Loire light, the question remains unresolved for the AOCs…
But in Montagne-Saint-Emilion, a satellite of the prestigious Bordeaux appellation, Clos de Boüard, in the same family as the icon Angelus, already devotes a third of its production to Prince Oscar: 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet and 0% alcohol. The cuvée was born, in 2019, from a request from the Qatari owners of PSG, to be served in the boxes.
The so-called “No Low” fashion: with or without alcohol
If the fashion of “no-low” took the vineyard by surprise, the latter reacted very quickly. The Anglo-Saxon term, imported with the abstinence operations of Dry January, designates “adult” drinks (wines, but also spirits and cocktails) partially (low) or totally (no) dealcoholized. In the land of great wines, consumers are turning with curiosity towards these sober substitutes in a context of “deconsumption” that has lasted for half a century: minus 60% in sixty years. The French have already massively converted to 0% beer. So why not wine?
The Domaine de l’Arjolle, La Côte de Vincent and, above all, the Chavin house, number one in the sector, have long offered this type of bottle, compatible with injunctions linked to illness, pregnancy, religion, sport or the Highway Code… But this sudden craze concerns a young and unconstrained public.
“Our customers have a refined palate and continue to drink classic wines,” says the founder of the first alcohol-free wine cellar in Paris, in 2022. According to Augustin Laborde, “only 20% of visitors to the Paon qui Boit are real ‘abstems’, while the vast majority of them are flexidrinkers who manage their alcohol consumption: in the evening, every other day or only on weekends.” The shop stocks around a hundred wines: “We receive a new product every week,” says the wine merchant. With well-known labels such as Uby in Gascony, Château La Coste in Provence (Nooh), the Alsatian cellars of Bestheim (Zero Limit) and Ribeauvillé (Rib0): “These sure values help to win over the curious.”
Movement no-low even has its “grand cru” with the Vintage de French Bloom, an effervescent vintage blanc de vins based on organic chardonnay from Languedoc, aged in oak barrels. Its price: 109 euros per bottle. It undoubtedly contains a certain complexity with notes of dried apricot, candied fruit and toasted coffee. “I sell 1,500 per year, more than some Médoc classified growths,” confides a Bordeaux merchant, surprised but admiring.
A replacement option
“We are not anti-alcohol,” says French Bloom founder Rodolphe Frerejean-Taittinger, who also produces champagne and cognac. “It’s more of an alternative option,” inspired by the pregnancy of his wife Maggie (former director of the Michelin Guide) and their friend, model Constance Jablonsky. The diet argument often comes up in the promotion of these low-calorie bottles.
French Bloom, launched in 2021 with the support of big names in wine and spirits Jean Moueix and Béatrice Cointreau, sold 300,000 sparkling whites and rosés (30 euros) last year. The new Vintage cuvée, produced in 17,000 bottles, is the culmination of four years of research. The organoleptic qualities and sensations remain the big challenge of these new drinks. “Too many people dealcoholize tank dregs that they don’t know what to do with when you have to create a specific base. It’s completely undrinkable,” says Rodolphe Frerejean-Taittinger. “We have to exaggerate all the parameters of acidity, oxidation and woodiness to preserve the nose, attack, texture and length. Overplay to deconstruct.”
With his Moderato range, Sébastien Thomas, a former Pernod-Ricard employee, targets “reasonable enthusiasts, who want to keep the pleasure of ‘having a drink’ around the ceremony of the bottle.” He selected Colombard for the whites and a blend of Merlot and Tannat for the reds: “Very aromatic varieties to start with, with good natural acidity, and harvested not too ripe to limit the alcoholic potential from the outset.” Because not all grape varieties withstand the shock of dealcoholization as well – which leads to a loss of 60 to 80% of aromas and 20% of volumes.
There are several techniques: reverse osmosis, classic distillation and, more recently, low-temperature distillation, from 32 to 35°C, which is much less aggressive. A system for capturing volatile natural aromas allows them to be reintegrated into the product – considerably improved by this new method. For a long time, the pioneers of dealcoholized wine had to send their vats to Germany or Spain to carry out the treatment. A sign of a new market that is opening up: in a few months, four industrial units have been commissioned in France, including two investments of two and four million euros at Bordeaux Families and Vivadour, cooperatives in the South-West open to custom work.
The sector, resigned to supporting the movement
The industry, initially annoyed and disconcerted, seems resigned to supporting the phenomenon by looking at the glass half full: a potential remedy for overproduction and a way of converting a new audience… “It’s not just a fashion : it is an underlying trend of deconsumption and we cannot go against the market”, notes Samuel Montgermont, president of Vin et Société, the French lobby of the sector. While, today, the radical 0% is of more interest than the intermediate titrations, he expects a small rise in the breathalyzer, once the effect of the novelty has passed.
“I understand this attraction to non-alcoholic drinks that still deserve a stemmed glass,” says Bordeaux winemaker Jacques Lurton. “But I don’t understand why so many traditional players are rushing into it,” rebels this figure from Pessac-Léognan, worried about the mixing of genres. “This amalgamation is very dangerous for our appellations. It threatens the culmination of a thousand-year-old history. Our image is being exploited to sell something completely different.” The president of the family group André Lurton fears (or hopes for…) “a bottleneck” in what remains “a niche market.”
Fans will have to put aside their usual criteria. Notwithstanding the heat of the alcohol, some bottles, especially effervescent ones, are not lacking in qualities – fruitiness, bitterness, acidity, freshness – when looking for a harmless and nevertheless festive drink.
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