Course Syllabus

Monday, January 18, 2016

Alcohol Free Wine

I have several members of my family who do not drink alcohol and I got to wondering this weekend what the industry for non-alcoholic wine looked like.  I have actually never tried non-alcoholic wine in full disclosure.

I wandered across the article below from the New York Post which indicated the growth that industry is experiencing.  The article from Winefolly below also indicates the huge potential, but suggests that noone has really found the secret formula for preserving the taste that alcohol provides the wine.  The Winefolly post points to a study done in France that showed decreasing alcohol content from 12% to 6% did not have an impact on the positive health benefits of wine.

http://nypost.com/2015/01/10/non-alcoholic-beer-and-wine-are-hot-but-do-they-taste-good/
http://winefolly.com/tutorial/non-alcoholic-wine/

I'm curious to drill down more on technological efforts (if any) wineries are making to enhance the non-alcoholic offerings they provide.  I think it's clear that the vast majority if people will always prefer to have alcohol in their wine, but I wonder if looking to expand a non-alcoholic wine platform would be a good return on invested capital for wineries and a way to reach a new set of customers.

I was wondering if anyone in the class has experience with non-alcoholic wine.  There is a huge portion of the wold that does not drink alcohol (several Muslim countries for instance make alcohol illegal).  Even in instances in the United States where someone may not drink alcohol (whether for a period of time - i.e. pregnancy or for the long term), I would think this product offering would see demand.  The key question is whether the return on investment makes sense and the product can stand up in terms of quality and comparability to wine with alcohol.

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