Non-alcoholic wines & sparkling wines

Growth:

In Germany, sales of non-alcoholic sparkling wine now account for about one in ten bottles (market share of approximately 7.5% to 10%).

Acceptance: Once often ridiculed, non-alcoholic wines are increasingly gaining in taste quality and acceptance thanks to improved production methods (such as vacuum distillation).

Seasonal peaks:

Retailers experience enormous increases in demand, especially during promotions like "Dry January".

 

Why aren't they cheaper?

Although alcohol tax does not apply to non-alcoholic products, their retail prices are usually the same as or higher than those of conventional wine. There are several reasons for this:

 

Additional production steps:

To produce alcohol-free wine, a high-quality "normal" wine must first be produced, from which the alcohol is then removed in a technically complex and expensive process.

Liquid loss:

The removal of alcohol results in a loss of approximately 10% to 16% of the volume, which reduces the yield per liter of base wine.

Ingredients:

Since alcohol is a flavor carrier, grape must or natural flavorings often have to be added to compensate for the loss of flavor, which incurs additional costs.

Smaller quantities:

Compared to the mass market for alcoholic wines, production quantities are even smaller, resulting in higher fixed costs per bottle.