How alcohol-free wine is made

Almost all no-alcohol wine starts as ordinary wine. The alcohol is then removed, most often by vacuum distillation (which lowers the boiling point so the wine is not cooked), reverse osmosis, or spinning cone technology.

The technical difficulty is that alcohol does three jobs at once: it carries aroma, contributes sweetness and provides body. Removing it takes all three away simultaneously, which is why de-alcoholised wine often tastes thin.

Producers commonly add back grape must, sugar, glycerol or aromatics to compensate. Sparkling versions tend to succeed best, because carbonation supplies some of the texture the alcohol used to.

Labelling thresholds for "alcohol-free" and "low alcohol" differ between jurisdictions, so the same bottle can be described differently in different markets.