Apparently, dealcoholic "wine" travels a parallel road to traditional wine. But are we sure that tomorrow the beverage giants-the only ones who can afford the expensive process of dealcolare wine-won't try to supplant our beloved wine?
A Dec. 2, 2021, EU regulation allows wines also to be called totally or partially dealcoholic products, clearing them of the requirement to have at least 8 degrees of alcohol (9 degrees in Mediterranean regions) in order to be defined as such. The various governments will then have to ratify it, and the Italian government has not yet done so.
What is it basically about? It involves allowing a very invasive process designed to remove its alcoholic component from a wine. It is achieved by tangential filtrations and the use of very sophisticated and expensive machinery, which is completely impractical for a medium-sized producer. It will still be possible to produce them in the case of wines without any appellation, while for Igt, Doc and Docg, which stipulate a minimum alcohol content by specification, would require a change in the rules that would have to be voted on by the producers, in the consortia, for example, and then ratified by the Doc Commission and the EU itself.
It is very difficult for it to come to that unless, with specific regulations, that production is made so cost-effective that many producers are enticed to undertake it in the first place. There are already examples of this, even in Italy, and for those who, for various reasons, including religious ones, are unwilling or unable to consume alcoholic beverages, it would probably be a viable option.
However, the scenario is not yet complete. If you remember in the past few months from many quarters there has been a real attack on wine and alcoholic beverages on health grounds, including from European Union commissions. All this could lead in the near future to limiting, when not eliminating, European subsidies allocated for promotion and export, such as CMOs (Community Market Organization). If wine is bad for you, you cannot promote it, in short. However, if the wine is dealcoholic then this may change. I don’t want to be a schemer, but I find it peculiar that two European initiatives are going in the same direction, surprisingly.
That said., I do not want to underestimate the problems associated with alcohol abuse., of course, but only to say that the combination of these regulations in my view represents a Trojan horse that in perspective could put the wine industry in difficulty and questioning the idea of wine that is part of our Mediterranean tradition and beyond. I’d like to be wrong, but I’m afraid that in about 20 years. large international beverage groups could have dealcoholic wine production in their hands, get funds for its production and par promotion, and, as in a “liquid” Gresham’s law (That is, the one that states the assumption that “bad currency drives out good currency,” ed.), drive that wine we are passionate about out of the market for the most part. And maybe we will come to terms with Barolo or Brunello dealcolato, who knows?
