Even if you missed out on participating in Dry January, the abundance of non-alcoholic (NA) wine options makes it easy to embrace the spirit of the month, all while enjoying your favorite drinks without the buzz.
What exactly is a non-alcoholic wine? And how do you find the perfect one? Check out our simple guide to this expanding category and NA bottles that consumers love below.
What is Non-Alcoholic Wine?
Terms like “non-alcoholic” and “alcohol-free” are often used interchangeably. According to The Irish Times, for something to be NA it must have started as alcoholic and then had the alcohol removed.
There are four methods approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for removing alcohol from wine, reports the Institute of Food Technologists. But the two most common ways are vacuum distillation and reverse osmosis. In vacuum distillation, the beverage is heated to the point where the alcohol evaporates.
During the practice of reverse osmosis, wine is run “through a filter, and the filter separates the alcohol based on the size of the molecule,” Terry Donnelly, chairman and CEO of Hill Street Beverage Company Inc. told Wine Enthusiast. “Alcohol is a bigger molecule than water, so you can literally run it through like a microscopic strainer and filter the alcohol off.”
