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De-alcoholised wine – the science behind alcohol reduction

Julia Harding MW

Thursday 11 January 2024 • 15 min read

NOLOs low alcohol

Spinning cone column

How do you remove the alcohol from wine to make non-alcoholic or low-alcohol (NOLO) wine? And why are NOLO wines so hard to get right? This photo of a spinning cone column courtesy of Flavourtech.

Why reduce alcohol?

Alcohol levels in wine have been rising over the last 30 or 40 years, a tendency that has been widely dissected, both in the press and more informally over heady – and headache-inducing – bottles of wine. Jancis’s 2005 article on high-alcohol wines, for example, charts the ‘general planetary tendency towards stronger and stronger wines’, with a particular focus on Napa...

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