In Italy, no-alcohol wines are still a taboo, but machinery business is already important

If in Italy, no alcohol wine production is still stationary, waiting for a turning point which is delaying to arrive, but sooner or later, it will arrive, as recently confirmed by the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida, opposed in any case to using the word “wine” for this type of product, anyway. But, the world of wine is continuing to look at this still niche sector, but with a great and significant potential growth with interest, and, this is thanks to the new generations, particularly, those who, mainly in the US, but not only, are demonstrating to be more sensible to no/low alcohol beverages. And, if Nolo market (no e low alcohol) is already worth 1 billion dollars in the US, Iwsr estimates (International Wine & Spirits Research) talk about a growth of 5% in volume in 2023 for a value of over 13 billion dollars in the main 10 markets in the world (with no alcohol destined to grow by 7% between 2023 and 2027).
It is not surprising, therefore, that no and low alcohol has found ample space at No. 30 Simei (until tomorrow at Fiera Milano Rho), the event by Unione Italiana Vini (Uiv), world leader in wine and beverage machinery, catching the eyes of sector operators, particularly made in USA, thanks to the technologies for the dehalcolization, which are now those that are registering major interest. Because, if in Italy no alcohol wine is still a taboo, in the production of machinery, it plays an absolute leading role. And, in the definitions, there is no international uniformity, considering that “in the USA we prefer to call them low sugar rather than low alcohol”, summarized Randy Ullom, enologist and vice president of Californian wine giant Jackson Family Wines, all agree about the fact that the future will go through it. The figures communicated by the event talk about 70 American buyers representing the main wine stars and stripes businesses: from Constellation Brands to Francis Ford Coppola, until, exactly, Jackson Family, a “giant” with vineyards located in the Usa, in Canada, but also in Italy (with Tenuta di Arceno in Chianti Classico, ed), in France, in South Africa, in Chile, and in Australia. According to David Crippen, director of winemaking at Bear Creek Winery, the sixth biggest family-run wine company in the Usa, who is at Simei in order to study the offer of dehalcolization machinery, “almost all the equipment we have in our winery is Italian, and the improvement in quality that tricolor wines made in the last 40 years is probably correlated also to these technologies”.
A Nolo production trend, which met at Simei a “matching” with the made in Italy offer, a leading country in the technologies for wine, which wants to remain in the game, despite the dehalcolization ban, which is still in force. Amongst the innovation, the official presentation of “Libero”, a project for the large scale production of no alcohol wines throughout a continuous cycle allowing to remove alcohol from wine. Omnia Technologies called it in this way because “capable of let the wine be tasted without restrictions”, and, by the Italian group counting 400 engineers, and specialists in 39 production plants,underlined how “we encounter an unprecedented interest, particularly by Spain, Greece, and by the Usa. Also Italian wine producers express curiosity, but their deadlock condition doesn’t allow them to risk more”. And then, there is Vason, which has been in the field of wine industry since 50 years and found a wide interested audience, from Spanish to Argentinian, arriving to Indians: “there is the market, the interest has raised in the last two years – said president Albano Vason - sure, it would be very different if Italy could compete on equal terms, in the vineyard, and in the winery”. And, in Milan, the lights turned on on Mmr (Master Mind Remove), a machinery thought for the dehalcolization also in small and medium wineries.
From the demand to the offer, until the production, at Simei, no-alcohol wine is the elephant in the room: “last year – said managing director Mionetto (amongst the most prestigious brands of Prosecco, ed) Alessio del Savio - thanks to German parent company Henkel, we produced and sold 2 million of sparkling wine bottles, this year we doubled it, and we are at 4 million. All sold, particularly in Germany, in the Usa, in Northern countries, and in Eastern Europe”.