Non Wine Features and What to Know

Europeans are drinking less and less wine. That's one reason why more and more vines are being uprooted. German wine growers fear that 30% of their vineyards will soon disappear. It's already happening here on the mine river near Schvine. It looks a bit bleak now that the vines are gone. With heavy hearts, we had to make the decision to have some of them cleared. Non-alcoholic wine is a growing niche in the wine industry. An extra step in the wine- making process removes the alcohol from conventionally produced wine.

Could this be a solution for wine makers who are feeling the pinch of lower sales? With non-alcoholic wine, we could be pioneers of sorts and reach a target audience who want different products. It's 7:00 a.m. in the Toro wine region in Castile Leon, Spain. Wine maker Ivan Alonzo Gil is preparing to harvest his grapes. He has hired harvest workers from an agency. Usually about 8 to 10 people come. During the grape harvest, we always hire temporary workers, but they aren't always the same ones because there is much more demand than there are people who are qualified to do the job. Today, it isn't eight helpers,

but only five who show up. It's going to be exhausting. The field has to be harvested today as the grapes are ripe. Go and pick that single vine over there. Ivan explains exactly where they should pick. His fields are planted with bush vines, their roots deep in the sandy soil. The dense foliage protects the fruit from the sun. Ivan mainly has vines with dark grapes, but today it's the turn of a white variety called Malvasia. a few now, but when you go over there later, there'll be more.

The vines here are over 80 years old. In other areas, more than 100. All familyowned. They are Ivan's pride and joy. The yields are obviously quite low because the vines are so old, but the concentration and quality of the grapes are higher. Ivan has been making his own wine since 2017. He markets them himself under his own name, both in Spain and internationally. But it's getting harder and harder to sell wine. We're kind of in the middle. We're neither a discount provider nor a major wine brand that everyone knows. That's why we're feeling the current decline in sales particularly hard. And that's why we want to launch something different.

He sees potential for wine due to the success story that is non-alcoholic beer. In Germany, nearly one in 10 beers is now non-alcoholic, most of it produced in Germany and Spain. The Toro wine region is famous for its fullbodied wines, all of which are high in alcohol. On the plateau northeast of the Dwero River, the nights are cool and the summer days are hot and dry. This produces very special grapes and Ivan is very proud of them. His winery is located just outside the small town of Toro. In the first few weeks after the harvest, he has to repump the wines three times a day. Initially, the red grape must is stored in large stainless steel tanks along with the pressed

skins. This is how the red wines get their deep red color. It's caught on something. The hose has got entangled. The van has to go back down. Now we're adding coal to the tank to regulate the temperature. By circulating the liquid, we can prevent the temperature from rising too high. We ferment at low temperatures to extract more subtle aromomas and avoid losing the aromatic qualities. This makes the wines fruier. The must is drained from the bottom of the tank using a sieve and poured back over the grape skins from above. Ivan learned how to make wine from his grandfather when he was a child.

Later he worked at large wineries in the region before starting his own business with the family vineyards. After a few weeks, the wine is transferred from the steel tanks to oak barrels to age and develop a barique flavor. All of this sets Ivan's winery apart from large industrial operations. Many find it unusual that a wine maker like him would choose to have the alcohol removed from one of his finished wines. Traditional wine lovers are often opposed to this as in their opinion it is no longer wine but becomes something like a winebased soft drink. But there are also those who want to modernize a traditional product in order to respond to current demand.

Ivan has contacted a German company that is currently building a dealkalization facility in Spain. They will dealcoholize a small amount of his wine in Germany for testing purposes. But first, let's look at a wine growing region in Franconia on the mine river in Germany. There used to be 13 wineries in Schweinfoot. Today, only one remains. It belongs to the Dams family. Wine maker Jurgen Dams is in a hurry as he wants to finish the harvest today. Okay, then let's put it on right because I need space here. Yeah, we've had so much rain the last few days. Now, we're glad we caught another dry spell, so we have to hurry a bit. I think we've got about 9 to 10 pickers here. It's all manual labor, so

we can get this in while it's still in great shape. The Sana from the steep slope. Wine has been grown on the steep slopes above the mine for centuries. Here at the Petern, the slope is a good 40%. So dams needed manual labor. Harvest workers have been coming from Romania for years to help with the grape harvest as barrel carriers. We take turns so everyone gets a chance. Next time, 1 hour with me, 1 hour with my colleague. Yeah, it's pretty exhausting this steep slope. The future of these vineyards is uncertain.

It's simply becoming less profitable, but it's also a question of wages. It's easier to make money elsewhere. And yes, younger people are saying, "Dad, mom, sorry, but I'd rather do something else." And I get it. In the Dam's family too, the children weren't initially interested in working at the winery until Yogen's son, Luca, discovered non-alcoholic wine as a business idea 4 years ago. He was working in the insurance industry and was more of a marketing expert than a wine maker. Look, here we have a SAR. Check it out. It's actually nicely ripe now. That works out pretty well. Looks good. I'm going to steal it.

Yeah, I won't be able to give you that one to dealcoholize. It'll stay wine. To make good non-alcoholic wine, you need good wine as the base product from which the alcohol is then removed. Otherwise, it would turn into overly sweet grape juice. Wine maker Jurgen advises his son Luca, even though Luca didn't originally want to take over the winery. Of course, I see my father's passion for what he does. And I always thought to myself, man, I can't really do that. Then I went in a completely different direction and have now returned to the winery after discovering an interest in dealization. And for years now, I've just had a blast working closely with him on this. It's

just fun. Is the passion coming back? The passion is already back. For his first non-alcoholic wines, Luca de alcoholized 10,000 lers from the family winery. Today, his company sells 300,000 bottles a year. He buys all the base wines from outside, but he would like to get some from his father again. The grapes from the steep slope are foot crushed by the seller technician immediately after they are harvested. So here you can see quite clearly how deep I'm sinking, which means most of the grapes have already burst. The grapes, which have been gently crushed by foot, ensure a fine balance between aromas, fruit, and body in the resulting wine. But it's even more important that grapes from this vintage are properly ripe.

This is actually perfect. 90xla. So, we did it right. We nailed the timing. 90x. If we end up somewhere around 12% alcohol, that's just right for a dry sana like this. And it's the winery's flagship wine. But even Jurgen Dams notices that Germans are drinking less alcohol. Over the last 18 years, it's down 18%. The crisis is hitting some wine makers so hard that they're giving up and that has consequences. Daniel Hestoa is out in the field for the Bavarian State Institute for Viticulture and has been observing a new dangerous trend in the vineyards.

Here the vines are tended and harvested. They ended here. They are no longer tended. The grapes are all still on the vine. A vineyard like this not only looks eerie, it also poses a danger to the neighbors. When grapes rot and the vines are not tended, pests and fungal diseases can spread unchecked. The spores are carried by the wind into the neighboring area where they can lead to new infections. You can try to protect the plants as much as you want. For the wine maker next door, the neighbor, it's a mid-level disaster.

It would be better to clear the vineyard. If it's not too steep, the tractor can plow the vines out. On this plot of land owned by the state agency, the yields from viticulture were so poor that no wine is grown here anymore. So, if the land is properly cleared, then that's really no problem. Then we also have the potential for greater biodiversity. A flower meadow is to be planted here in the spring. As a change of pace among the many vineyards, the look of the landscape is important. Many visitors come to Franconia specifically for the vineyards. Tourism is a major economic factor.

We earn roughly 15 times from wine tourism compared to wine sales alone. That's quite a lot. And that's why preserving this cultural landscape is essential for the wine growing region here in Franconia. Wine tourism in Franconia has been a major success story in recent decades. People appreciate the region's distinctive cultural landscape and tourism generates nearly€4 billion in revenue for the region each year. Nevertheless, tourists are also drinking less wine, making it difficult for wine makers to keep the vineyards going. Jurgen Dams also had a vineyard cleared a few years ago, not far from his family estate. 3 and 1/2 hectares of steep

slopes right on the mine river. When you look at the abandoned parts here, it looks kind of strange and desolate. And when you go in there as a wine maker, of course, you have mixed feelings because on the one hand, you say, "Oh my god, this poor vineyard. It's such a great one. When you look at the steep slope all the way, it's actually perfect for the grapes. But it just wasn't financially viable anymore. There are always a lot of emotions involved in wine- making and the vineyards. But they can also make you go broke. So you have to make sure the business is on a solid financial footing.

These vineyards are already lost and German wine growers expect that up to 30% of Germany's vineyard acreage will disappear. Can a shift towards non-alcoholic wine halt this trend? Luca Dams wasn't thinking about vineyards when he launched his project four years ago. So, I was at a party with friends and of course I brought some alcoholic wine from our winery because it's so easy to do that. And a pregnant friend and some sporty friends were there. And then someone asked if I could bring some non-alcoholic wine and it was actually meant as a joke because none of us, including me, had even heard of non-alcoholic wine.

Then I drove home and thought to myself, we should make something like this. I ordered everything that was available on the market, tested it all, and then realized we needed a premium brand that would make what's out there even better. And I was really into that idea. He sold the first 7,000 bottles of decoholized wine exclusively through his online store. It went well. Sales have since risen to 300,000 bottles a year, and Luca now also delivers to wholesale customers and restaurants. Today he has an appointment in Vssburg with renowned chef Bernard Risa at one of his restaurants. Ryza is a great connoisseur and fan of wines from Franconia but with alcohol.

However, restaurant goers are also drinking less and less alcohol and wine and the restaurant industry has to cater to that. Hello. I brought you something nice. Non-alcoholic wine. Oh, okay. Come on, I'll show you. This is something very special. It's our gold label. We made it specifically for the Arab market mainly because it also has the halal label. Oh, okay. Exactly. We have that for the Emirates. We export it to Oman. It's for our target audience. He has three non-alcoholic sparkling wines, one white wine and one red wine in his range. For the hotel, restaurant, and specialtity retail sectors, it's also

something new. People just have to try it and get to know it. How do non-alcoholic wines pair with food? The chef and his wife, Sumelier Celia Rutiga, are going to test that out. They've never had a non-alcoholic red wine before. Is that English food? Well, actually, I'm missing that typical that purisine- like green bell pepper flavor. It's just not there at all. I might as well be drinking anything right now. the alcohol creates warmth, a warm sensation in the mouth and a sense of volume and is largely responsible for the finish for how long the flavor lingers in the mouth. And that's just missing here.

They are not impressed by the red wine. How about the white? Now I'm curious. Here comes the reasoning. To accompany the wine, they're trying a saffron pumpkin rotto and a spicy curry soup. Can the non-alcoholic wine complement these dishes well and enhance their dining experience? It holds its own. It captures the heat and asserts itself. It says, "Hello, I'm here too." It doesn't get lost. That would be my favorite for the Rezling right now because it just plays off that sharpness so nicely. More and more guests are expecting non-alcoholic alternatives to go with a good meal. If someone says, "I can't drink alcohol today. Do you have anything tasty for me?" Then as a good host, I'll have something for them. They'll be

surprised, and that gives me another bonus point. That's why we already have these kinds of drinks in our refrigerators. Certainly not a large quantity, but we do have them. Back in the Spanish wanging region of Toro, viticulture is a major industry here in the region, but drinking habits are changing. One small area where the wine industry is growing is the non-alcoholic sector. That's why wine maker Ivan is getting serious about it. He's packing 10 bottles of a 2024 vintage red wine to have them dealcoholized by a German company.

I've always liked to experiment. So, I'm trying this out with one of my wines to see what potential decoholization has. I'm not afraid. It's more like uncertainty, excitement, something like that. If Ivan still likes the taste of his own wine after having it processed, he plans to launch an alcohol-free wine next year. A few days later, the wine has arrived in Sauding near Munich. This is where a small dealcoholization plant offering aroma recovery is located. Food chemist Claudia Agaya developed the process with a colleague and has already assisted many wine makers with their first attempts.

Wine makers are actually afraid of losing their identity. Their true passion and what they have created are generally lost when decoholization takes place and that is what we restore through our aroma recovery process. In the first step, Ivan's wine is drawn into the system where a vacuum is created. At around 28°, the alcohol can be distilled out. It's a very gentle process. From one liter of wine with 14% alcohol content, 140 ml of pure alcohol are extracted. But this contains a wealth of aromomas. That's why they've developed a process here that recovers the flavor from the alcohol drop by drop. What used to be contained in the same volume as is now in the 10 bottles is suddenly concentrated into a single milll. And the aroma is incredibly

strong and of course very authentic. But where there was originally no aroma, none can be recovered. In the past, wine makers like to put poor quality wines through the dekalization process, ones they didn't mind losing. That has changed. It's getting better. Wine makers know exactly what they can send us now, and they are gaining more experience. Barrel aging really comes through beautifully in the decoholized product, and that also compensates quite well for the missing alcohol. This process costs between 1 and€150 per liter, which makes non-alcoholic wine more expensive. The bottles for Spanish wine maker Ivan are now ready, and Claudia Gaya lets her colleague in Valencia know.

Hi, Pedro. So, the parcel is ready to go to Spain. Looking really forward to receive it and getting in here to deal with the customer. With an estimated market share of 1.5%, Germany is one of the most important markets for non-alcoholic wine in the EU. In Spain, non-alcoholic wine has so far been consumed significantly less than in Germany, but the market is growing here as well. Ivan sees this as his opportunity. He drove a good 5 hours from Toro to Valencia. An alcohol-free wine facility is opening here, featuring aroma technology from Germany. Over the past few weeks, Ivan has prepared by tasting several alcohol-free wines.

Well, there was a bit of everything. I like some of the wines, others not so much, but there's a big difference between German and Spanish wines. We'll see how it goes. The facility is in its final completion phase. If Ivan is convinced by the process, he'll bring his wine here. Pedro Garcia Navaro, the Spanish manager of the facility, is showing him around. Ivan says he produces around 20,000 L of wine each year. He'd have to start with 5,000 L here as that's the minimum volume for the decoholization process. And these two tanks, these two tanks are where the two steps of dealkization take place. Yes.

To keep the facility running at full capacity, Navaro needs to find interested wine makers whose wines are suitable for processing. Ivan's winery is actually exactly the kind we really like here. Mainly because he produces premium wines, highquality wines where great attention is paid to the teroir and the work in the cellar with a lot of dedication. And that's exactly what our facility is designed for. This is the first decoholization plant Ivan has ever seen. I'm surprised. I had imagined something smaller, more like a pilot plant, but this is a really large facility.

It looks very modern. As in the small facility in Sauding, Germany, aroma will be recovered from alcohol at this plant after the alcohol has been removed. Now they're going to taste one version of Ivan's dealcoholized wine without aroma recovery and two with aroma recovery. Take a seat. Now we're getting to the important part, the tasting. It's time to get serious. Does he like the wine? Now I'm really nervous. I'm like, just give it to me already. I'm even more nervous. It's like an exam or a casting. Is this the one without the aroma?

This one has no aroma. Even without aroma, it has a bit of aroma. Ivan sets the one without aroma aside right away. The version with it is more interesting. My question now is, do you recognize your wine? With this one, not so much. But with this one, yes. Now the mouth feel. [clears throat] Yeah. Yeah, you can tell [snorts] it's much more complete. It's better than I imagined. I'm glad. I like that smile. I usually prefer wines with alcohol, but this is a really acceptable alternative. I'm absolutely thrilled. It took many years of research to get to this point so that the wine maker can still recognize their own wine after the

process. Thank you very much for coming and I hope we take it into production. Let's see how you do with a 2025 wine. Ivan is convinced. He's determined to make his first non-alcoholic wine next year. If non-alcoholic beer succeeded in reaching new customers, perhaps wine can follow suit. The wine makers certainly hope so.