The brief for an NA wine project looks different than it did 3 years ago. Customers arrive with higher expectations, tighter sugar targets and a longer ingredient list. Two of BevZero’s product development leads, one in California and one in Spain, were asked the same questions about non alcoholic beverage development independently. Here is where their answers lined up, and where the two markets split. 

Key Takeaways 

• The quality bar has moved. Customers ask for less sugar and lighter flavor additions and expect to maintain the wine character. 

• Base wine selection decides most of the outcome. Both experts named it the single most important choice, and both said the most expensive wine is not necessarily the right one, but you also don’t want a flawed wine. 

• The two markets diverge. Functional ingredients and canned sparkling drive American projects. Varietal identity and partial dealcoholization drive European ones. 

Who Answered These Questions 

Christian Deaken is Product Development Manager at BevZero US, where he has spent nearly 3 years taking client formulas to finished product and building BevZero’s white label wines. Gregorio Blanco Toledano, Quality and R&D manager at BevZero Spain, runs formulation and trial work for European producers. 

What Are Customers Asking for That They Weren’t a Few Years Ago? 

“A couple of years ago, people just wanted to make a product that could taste good enough,” Deakin says. The wines on the shelf then sat far enough from traditional wine that standing out took very little. “Now the goal is to go past good and get them to taste more wine-like, while also being good.” 

Two requests come with that. Less sugar, because even sweet traditional wine is nowhere near as sweet as most NA wine has been. And a lighter hand with added flavor, which the category leaned on early to answer what dealcoholization was doing to the wine. The process has since gotten gentler, and formulation has followed. 

In Spain, Blanco hears the same restraint requested. Clients want wines made with natural flavors and natural ingredients. European buyers ask for pronounced fruit character in reds, and bubbles and freshness in whites. 

Where Does Non-Alcoholic Beverage Development Actually Start? 

Both experts were asked how much the original base wine matters. Both answered without hedging. 

“The most important thing is choosing the wine,” Blanco says. A wine with high acidity ends up with higher acidity after dealcoholization. A red with high tannin becomes difficult to balance. 

He also tested the assumption that price tracks suitability. “We made trials with high-price wine, 40 or 50 euros, and it is not always the best wine to dealcoholize. It is the best wine to drink, but not the best wine to dealcoholize. Price is not an indicator of suitability for dealcoholization.” 

Deakin reaches the same place through the chemistry. Removing alcohol also removes water, so the finished volume is smaller and everything left behind sits at a higher concentration. Acid climbs. Color deepens. Aroma drops. That gives him 2 criteria: start with aroma to spare, and start paler than the target. “If I’m trying to make a rosé, I need to start with the palest, softest pink wine out there, because after you concentrate that color it’s going to look like lipstick.” 

The same arithmetic applies to problems. “When I say everything concentrates, that includes flaws. If you start with flawed wine, you are going to end up with a very flawed dealcoholized wine.” 

In general: target a wine that will dealcoholize well, which is a separate question from how good it tastes today. 

What Needs Adding After the Alcohol Comes Out? 

Deakin works through the rebuild in a fixed order. Body first, because the wine turns thin and watery once the alcohol is gone. Acid and sugar next, rebalanced against each other and against a liquid that is now water-based. Aroma last, built back up to the product the client wants in the bottle. 

Blanco adds what alcohol was contributing before it left: sweetness, body and flavor. His team works with flavor houses on components that stand in for the physical sensation of alcohol, the warming and the slight spice. 

How Does Shelf Life Changes Affect Your Business Plan? 

This is the misconception Deakin meets most often in clients from traditional winemaking. “Once you yank the alcohol out, it’s not aging.” There is no release window to plan for and no prime drinking year to wait out. The product needs to sell quickly. 

Blanco approaches the same fact from the production side. Alcohol is the main barrier against microorganisms in wine, and removing it removes that protection. Microfiltration, additions, and post-bottling stability carry the load instead. 

How Do the U.S. and European Markets Differ Right Now? 

The split is clearest around functional ingredients. 

In the U.S., Deakin says these are a standard part of client conversations. L-theanine comes up most often, both in requests and on the shelf. He describes clients stacking several functional ingredients into products built around heavier flavors, which leave room to carry ingredients that do not taste good on their own. 

In Spain, Blanco has not seen that demand arrive. “Not too much for the moment. Maybe in a couple of years, or 3. But not now.” What he does field are flavor directions well outside traditional wine, including cocktail profiles such as mojito. 

Format splits too. The strongest U.S. pull is sparkling product in cans. Carbonation returns some of the texture alcohol removal takes away, and that customers are looking for. The can also answers a storage problem, since an opened bottle loses its fizz quickly. 

Varietal and origin identity carry more weight in Europe. “If you have a varietal in your winery or in your region, that is the way to make something different from the other producers,” Blanco says. 

What Each Expert Expects Next 

Deakin names still red wine. Sparkling is easier to produce than still, and white is easier than red, because red leans on body and because red aroma is a subtle blend of many compounds rather than 1 or 2 dominant notes. His approach puts the weight on body components and on a red base worth bottling. 

Blanco expects European growth from the partial end of the range: partially dealcoholized wine at 5% to 7% ABV, and alcohol adjustment work. 

Start Your NA Wine With the Right Base 

Most of what a drinker notices in a finished NA wine was decided before the alcohol came out. BevZero‘s teams in California, Spain and South Africa handle base wine selection, formulation and dealcoholization as one process, and clients own the formula at the end of a development project. The same non-alcoholic beverage development work also covers cider and spirits, so a winery branching into other formats does not start over elsewhere.  

👉 Contact BevZero online now or email us at [email protected].