One million new consumers in Italy are interested in dealcolate products, but they cannot be produced here. In the U.S., “rentals” are already worth $1 billion.
“In Italy, 36 percent of consumers are interested in consuming dealcolate drinks; in the United States, an incubator of trends especially among young people, the Nolo (no and low alcohol) market is already worth $1 billion. But Italy plays a residual role in this case, because – contrary to what has already been happening for two years among colleagues in the EU – our companies cannot process the product in wine plants and have not received guidance on the tax regime. In a nutshell, the product can circulate in Italy (as well as throughout the EU), but Italian producers cannot produce it“. Thus the secretary general of Unione italiana vini (Uiv), Paolo Castelletti, opening the proceedings of the round table Dealcolati & Co – The New Frontiers of Wine, held in collaboration with Vinitaly.
A complementary segment
At the table, along with testimonies from 7 companies (Argea, Doppio Passo, Hofstätter, Mionetto, Schenk, Varvaglione, Zonin) forced to dealcolare abroad, including analysts from Swg and the Uiv-Vinitaly Wine Observatory, to take stock of a segment considered complementary – even in Italy – to traditional wine consumption. This is evidenced by the survey conducted by Swg on a representative sample of Italians. “These products – Swg analyst Riccardo Grassi said. – affect first of all a potential 1 million non-drinkers of alcohol, as well as an audience of consumers of wine or other beverages (14 million) who consider them a drinking alternative in specific situations, such as getting behind the wheel“.
Why explant?
A type that could also be a new ally for the Italian vineyard: “We are hearing more and more about financed explantations,” added Castelletti – but the companies, which have restructured half of their vineyards (310,000 hectares) in recent years with public disbursements of 2.6 billion euros, want to continue their work, perhaps by reducing yields, focusing even more on quality, and – why not – being able to count on a New market asset such as Nolo’ s that would affect more distressed production areas“.
According to Swg, the share of attention toward dealcoholic wines (21%) is highest in the younger age groups (28% 18 to 34 years old), the target group with the greatest contraction in wine consumption, which 79% of the time declares “important” if not “very important” or “essential” to be able to Reduce problems related to alcohol abuse Making zero- or low-grade products available to consumers.
The opinion of Agivi’s young entrepreneurs
Strong interest also from the youth of Uiv. According to Agivi President Marzia Varvaglione, “Generation Z is showing great interest in a type that can respond to a sober curiousaudience . increasing in number, in the United States and around the world. Italy must be able to understand first of all on a cultural level that one product does not replace the other, and insist on experimentation that can reserve very interesting results“.
The health wave
According to the Uiv Observatory’s focus, the decline in consumption of tricolor wine in the U.S. (-13% imports by volume in 2023) is primarily dictated by the’So-called healthy wave of the younger generation, as well as strong competition from new low alcohol beverages and a demographic issue which sees the population of whites declining in favor of other ethnic groups, starting with Hispanics, who are culturally less oriented toward traditional wine consumption.
“Low alcohol wines,” said the head of the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory, Carlo Flamini, “have been the protagonists of a ride in recent years that has led them to be a no longer secondary choice in the evolution of Americans’ tastes, and today they are worth about $1 billion. This will be increasingly joined by other diet-conscious types for a predominantly young target audience: low-sugar wines, for example, have seen astronomical growths within a five-year period: from $10 million in 2019 to $270 million in the year just ended.”
No alcohol is still a niche ($62 million in value grown sevenfold in the last four years), but sales of alcohol-free wines from Italy outperformed the market in 2023, both in volume (+33% vs. +8%) and value (+39% vs. +24%). The average price of an alcohol-free wine is slightly higher than that of a traditional wine: $12.46 per liter versus $11.96 in 2023.
