Low-alcohol wines, Italy stands still while France and Spain run
According to UIV data based on Nielsen-IQ, in contrast to conventional wine, dealcoholised wines closed the half-year in retail in the US, UK and Germany with a total value of EUR 79 million (+16%)
3' min read
3' min read
Alcohol-free but full of uncertainty. This is the condition of Italian wine producers determined to venture into the new frontier of alcohol-free or low-alcohol wines. A market segment that is on the rise, especially abroad. According to data from the UIV Observatory based on Nielsen-IQ, bucking the trend compared to conventional wine, alcohol-free wines closed the half-year in the retail sector in the USA, the UK and Germany with a total value of 79 million euro (+16%). With an increase in the US (which accounts for 50% of total demand) of 35%.
A segment in which Italy plays a residual role while other competitors, France and Spain in primis, have launched themselves promptly and decisively. It has recently been reported that the French luxury brand Lvmh, which owns Champagne brands such as Moet Chandon, Dom Perignon, Krug and Veuve Clicquot, has signed a partnership agreement with French Bloom, a label that has established itself in the production of non-alcoholic sparkling wines of quality, with a production of half a million bottles sold at prices even higher than $100. Much more than a signal.
In Italy, on the other hand, everything is on the high seas, or worse, shrouded in the mists of uncertainty, not least because the round table on the production of dealcoholised wines announced by Minister Lollobrigida last July in late October has still not met once.
There are two knots to be unravelled in particular: on the one hand, the constraint laid down by the 2016 Testo Unico del Vino according to which a drink can be called 'wine' if it has a minimum alcoholic strength of 8.5 degrees. And so anyone who wants to make a product with a lower if not zero alcohol content must use a fancy name.
In reality, there would be theEU law that authorised the production of wines with a lower alcohol content, but the Italian law in conflict with the EU law has not yet been amended and producers in doubt as to whether or not they will be penalised avoid such processing within their company.
