Italians increasingly more “attracted” by no/low-alcohol drinks, a fast-growing niche

While the decline in wine and alcoholic beverage consumption in Italy has been steady and almost structural for some time (753 million liters and 3.2 billion euros in 2024 in large-scale retail, down -0.7% in volume but up +2.3% in value, with a further -4.5% drop in volume in the first three months of 2025, according to Circana data), the rise of no- and low-alcohol alternatives is a relatively recent phenomenon. Logically, if the former is slowly declining, the latter is experiencing something close to a boom, at least in terms of percentage increases. But, the fact is that, in a time of great changes in consumption and lifestyle of Italians, while volume sales of wine, beer, and traditional spirits fell by -2.7% between 2022 and 2025, their non-alcoholic counterparts grew by +14.8%. Specifically, traditional wine declined by -3%, while non-alcoholic wine rose by +31.3%. Spirits dropped by -4.3%, but their alcohol-free versions increased by +31.1%. Beer saw a -2.1% decline for alcoholic versions and a +9.5% rise for non-alcoholic ones (keeping in mind that alcohol-free beer has been available for much longer and, according to many, offers a taste closer to the original than wine or spirits currently do, ed). These are some of the aspects emerging from “Rapporto Coop 2025-Consumi e stili di vita degli italiani di oggi e di domani” - “Coop Report 2025 - consumption and lifestyles of Italians today and tomorrow”, presented today in Milan, and curated by the Research Office of Ancc-Coop (National Association of Consumer Cooperatives - Coop), one of the leaders in Italian retail. The report highlights how the health-conscious shift is also reflected in drinking habits, “especially among young people: 15.4 million Italians prefer a non-alcoholic beverage even when they can choose”.
Particularly, regarding low-alcohol products, 43% of Italians say they are interested in trying or consuming low-alcohol wines (rising to 47% among Millennials), and 15% for low-alcohol spirits, while there is less enthusiasm for completely alcohol-free versions, though 24% of Italians (and 31% of Gen Z) are open to alcohol-free wine, and 8% to alcohol-free spirits.
Still a niche, the no- and low-alcohol segment accounted for 0.7% of volume sales in Italy in 2024 (compared to 2.4% in France, 1.9% in the UK, and 7.5% in Germany), but according to Coop (and confirmed by international studies) this segment is expected to grow further with volume sales projected to rise by +20.3% in Italy by 2029 (and +31.7% in France, +8.6% in Germany, and +87.6% in the UK). The world of wine is increasingly aware that it must reckon with this trend in the near future.