I want to get this out there first: If you run into the opportunity to try an alcohol-removed wine, don’t do it. Pass. Find some real wine or a real non-alcoholic beverage.

Maybe I’ve just had a bad experience. But until further evidence presents itself to the contrary, I am an advocate against alcohol-removed wine. The stuff should not be drunk by anyone.

If you are interested in drinking some wine minus the alcohol, reconsider and find yourself a nice iced tea to drink instead. If you are looking for a cheap wine, there are much better real wines out there for under $10. Do a search for “white” or “chardonnay” or your favorite variety and sort by price. Look for something with at least 3 stars.

Why: The Back Story
While at the grocery store yesterday, I was surprised to see a few wine bottles on the shelf. See, I live in Pennsylvania, where wine and other spirits can only be purchased at state-operated liquor stores. Typically the only wine-like options available at our grocery stores are sparkling apple ciders, which I actually like quite a bit. But there, next to the sparkling Welch’s, was a bottle of Chardonnay. I was intrigued.

I chose the St. Regis Reserve Alcohol-Removed Chardonnay produced by Inglenook Vineyards. The wine-like beverage is sold in your typical 750ml bottle, with a real cork closure and the words “contains less than 0.5% ALC/VOL” on the label. Here’s what Inglenook has written on the back label:

Our Chardonnay begins as a premium California wine crafted with traditional wine making skills that have distinguished Inglenook Vineyards for over 120 years. We then gently remove the alcohol maintaining the wonderful body and taste of fresh apple and pear that Chardonnay lovers enjoy.

Seems harmless enough. I like apples and pears, though WineLog tells me that “pear” is tagged on a lot of wines I don’t like. But how do they “gently remove the alcohol”?

Some Reading
There’s some interesting information in this FAQ at the website for Ariel Wines, another alcohol-removed producer. They supposedly use a patented process (neat animation) to remove the alcohol without heating it. I’m not sure if Inglenook or the other wineries have similar technology.

Here is another decent article on non-alcoholic wines, which points out that these wines contain fewer calories than typical wines and Sutter Home is a big producer of alcohol-removed wine.

And if you are really bored, here is a text-heavy write up on alcohol-removed wines that looks promising. If you are able to get past the first paragraph, you might learn something… and I will applaud you. In the very least, it’s a good source to find the terms you should be searching for: like the “Spinning Cone Column” method.

The Official Review
So it’s good to know that there is such a thing as non-alcoholic wine (besides grape juice), but this specimen was pretty bad. I’d love be interested to try some of Inglenook’s alcoholic wine to see if it is the alcohol removal or the original wine that disagrees with me.

I rated the St. Regis Reserve Alcohol-Removed Chardonnay 1 star out of 5. It had a decent nose, full of apple and pear flavors. It smelled exactly like wine, minus the alcohol. In my mouth, the apple flavor (a strong granny smith) was pretty overpowering. It was almost like drinking apple juice. The taste was very much like the green apple jolly ranchers if you are familiar with those. Overall it was too sweet for me.

Is This Even Wine
Some people are very strict about what is and isn’t wine. Made with a fruit besides grapes? Not wine. Sugar added afterwards? Not wine. There are even laws in most states and countries around what is and isn’t wine. Some are stricter than others.

I’m pretty open-minded and think, “if you can do something to make the wine taste better, go ahead”. But I also find myself changing my view on the subject as I get deeper into wine. There’s a reason wine is so much more enchanting than soda pop or iced tea. When we drink wine, it’s not just the flavor, it’s the story, the history, the terrior, etc. So while adding extra ingredients or different kinds of processing can add to the wine’s flavor, it often removes some of the character of the wine, which is just as important.

Anyway, the thing that makes me question this wine’s wine-ness is the ingredients (emphasis mine):

INGREDIENTS: DEALCHOLIZED CHARDONNAY WINE; WATER; GRAPE JUICE CONCENTRATE; GLYCERIN; NATURAL FLAVORS; CARBON DIOXIDE; SORBITOL; MALIC ACID; SULFUR DIOXIDE (TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS)

Grape juice concentrate? What do they mean by ‘natural flavors’? Is that apple juice? I don’t even know about the rest of the stuff, but I’m guessing it’s pretty harmless and possibly in other wines we drink. Anyone know?

Summary: Help Me Out
So that’s my experience with non-alcholic/alcohol-removed/de-alcholized wine. If anyone knows more about this topic, I’d love to hear from you. If anyone has had some non-alcoholic wine that they like, please let me know. I don’t want to write off this whole category on the basis of one wine (and one guy’s opinion). Comments are appreciated.