Whisper it – alcohol-free wine has arrived in France

“My family did not speak to me for a year, it was my “treason to the country”. Even today, I receive hate letters from grape growers saying that I am destroying the market.”

“But now my father congratulates me and says that I am the locomotive of the wine train. If we survive these difficult times, it is because we have moved to the alcohol-free market.”

“It was very difficult for the purists to accept,” says Bernard Rabouy, winemaker at the Bordeaux Families cooperative.

“But we’ve got to evolve. The fact is, customers aren’t what they used to be. So we’ve got to go get them or they’ll go somewhere else.”

Promoters of alcohol-free wine are creating the perception that non-drinkers – who previously felt left out – can join the wine fun. And that’s right, the rituals of opening, smelling, describing, comparing are now open to everyone.

“What we want to do is try to bring back the France of our youth – when everyone sat around the dinner table drinking wine and it was a real moment of sharing,” says Anne Kattaneh.

“And the only way we can do that these days is if alcohol-free wines are part of the culture.”

“The idea that the world of wine will always be like it is now is rubbish,” says oenologist Brochet.

“Everything evolves. Once the barrel was a novelty. Cork was a novelty; grape varieties were a novelty. Now it’s something new that can help save the industry and the beautiful landscape and culture that goes with it. .

“As the poet) Paul Valeri said – what is tradition but successful innovation?”