Low alcohol trend: South Tyrolean winery Hofstätter launches its alcohol-free sparkling wine

In the wine summer ignited by the soon-to-be extinguished controversy of alcohol-free wine, which in the new CAP has become a possibility for EU producers according to the rules that will come into force in 2023, as already reported by WineNews, there are those who have not been idle and have launched themselves into the “alcohol-free” market. Like one of the most famous names in Italian and South Tyrolean wine, Hofstätter, a historic winery in South Tyrol, led by Martin Foradori Hofstätter. Which has launched its “Steinbock Alcol Free Sparkling” on the market, an alcohol-free sparkling wine made from Riesling that comes from Mosel.
“This is an alcohol-free wine that comes from a special technique to keep intact the delicate aromas of the raw material, in this case my beloved Riesling that prompted me to acquire the Dr. Fischer winery in Mosel. An extraordinary variety which is able to express itself nobly even in an alcohol-free version”, writes Martin Foradori Hofstätter himself. “It is not a grape juice but a bubbly obtained from wine - explains the company - Steinbock Alcohol Free Sparkling comes from a careful selection in the vineyard and then in the cellar. An innovative technique preserves the delicate aromas of wine by removing the alcohol contained. Inside an apparatus, the atmospheric pressure is reduced (to 15 mbar) and with this the boiling point of alcohol is lowered from 78° C to 25-30° C. At the end of the process, a beverage with an alcohol content lower than 0.25 Vol is obtained”. And the first 20,000 bottles are already on shelves around the world.
Besides, whether one likes it or not, the one of low alcohol wines or even alcohol-free wines is a growing market segment, which the world of wine production cannot ignore. According to a recent study by Wine Intelligence, in the US, for example, this market will see an aggregate growth of 10% from now to 2024. And Hofstatter, while the custodian of centuries-old history, has always been one of those wineries capable of looking to the future, as the producers on the home page of the winery’s website explain. “For four generations our family has been tending its vineyards on both sides of the Adige valley. Today our estate also extends on the steep slopes of the Mosel river, in Germany, and among the imposing mountains of Trentino. Without fearing the challenges of heroic viticulture, we cultivate every single variety where it can best express itself. We enhance the most suitable parcels of our historical farms, vinifying them separately, and we report the name of each vineyard on the label. The work between the rows and in the cellar gathers the heritage of our ancestors, combining respect for nature and innovation”.