Has non-alcoholic wine finally reached maturity?

It might seem a little weird to go to the London Wine Fair to taste non-alcoholic wine, but if you want to know what's going on in the world of drinks, the non- and The low-alcohol sector or nolo, as it's happily called, is where much of the action takes place: "49% of UK adults either don't drink alcohol or plan to cut back" says Laura Willoughby of campaign group Club A Soda. And, according to Lucky Saint, the leading non-alcoholic beer brand, 7.9 million adults participated in Dry January this year, up from 6.5 million in 2021.

That said, you don't really need to look at the statistics - instead trust the evidence with your own eyes. These days, almost every deli, health food store, and cafe has shelves full of soft drinks. I found the raspberry and rosemary syrup in today's selection at one of my locals, the Sunday General in Bristol, and it might do the trick for a pinot noir.

< p class="dcr-3jlghf">While it's relatively easy to switch to alcohol-free and low-alcohol beer (Lucky Saint is my favorite), alcohol-free wine is much harder to break. Not so bad, perhaps, for people who have never had alcohol or need to quit for a long time, but much less rewarding for wine drinkers who want to take the day off. The good news is that some reasonably impressive products are finally starting to hit the market, including cava producer Vallformosa's 0.0% VFMS that I mentioned the other week, as well as hard-to-nail reds like Noughty (yes , some manufacturers have rather irritating names).

And they keep getting better too: when I tried out the Blurred Vines' Spark prototype a few months ago , I wasn't that impressed, but now I'd happily drink it instead of a pet nat (natural sparkling, or naturally sparkling wine). There's certainly a market there too: in the year to October 2021, the market for low-alcohol and alcohol-free wines grew by 64.1%, or £149m, according to Club Soda's Willoughby.

Interestingly, I've always considered price a sticking point, but Willoughby, who ran a pop-up shop this year, says that there's surprisingly little resistance to paying similar prices to soft drinks: "It's about social inclusion," she says. "People want to feel involved when their friends are drinking. A good alcohol-free is coming to your reward centers and people don't mind paying for rewards." Hopefully pubs and restaurants with long nolo supply will take notice.

Four Drinks without alcohol for the summer

Urban Cordial Raspberry & Rosemary £6 (500ml) urbancordial.com, delicatessens and specialists Made at twice the recommended strength (1:4 rather than 1:8), this delicious low-sugar cordial has a remarkable pinot taste...