Non-alcohol wine is not legally allowed to be made in Italy. The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.
Italian wine producers can now make non-alcohol wine, but the right to do so only became official recently. When the EU regulation for de-alcoholization went into effect in 2021, Italy refused to allow any de-alcoholized wine to carry the designation “wine,” on the grounds that wine without alcohol was an affront to Italian wine culture. Under pressure from wine associations, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida changed his position and production of of de-alcoholized wine is released. By the way, Elton John’s new zero-proof Blanc de Blancs, while made with Northern Italy Chardonnay, is actually processed in Germany and fermented with yeasts that don’t produce alcohol from the outset.