A selection of NOLO wines from Australian Vintage

No and low-alcohol wine is gaining a foothold with Aussies that are focused on their health and moderating their alcohol intake while still wanting to enjoy world-class Australian wines.

No and low-alcohol options (NOLO), often referred to as “lifestyle wines,” present a significant growth opportunity both domestically and in export markets. However, NOLO wines currently lag behind their beer and spirit counterparts due to challenges in meeting consumer expectations for flavour and texture.

One of the key production challenges in NOLO wines is that the technologies used to remove ethanol from wine also remove the constituents responsible for aroma and flavour. Ethanol imparts ‘body’ (texture, viscosity, mouthfeel), and once removed, many de-alcoholised wines are often thin and water-like in texture. Providing innovative solutions will be the catalyst to overcoming this hurdle and driving the growth of NOLO wine products.

With a $3 million Cooperative Research Centres Project (CRC-P) grant, Australian Vintage is working with nine industry partners across the supply chain and the University of Adelaide. The project will address key technical and market challenges for NOLO winemakers including:

  • enhancing flavour capture and creation
  • improving mouthfeel and textural deficiencies
  • ensuring microbial stability
  • extending shelf-life
  • understanding consumer occasions and purchasing drivers including health, culture and lifestyle.

Advancing Australia as a Global Leader of lifestyle wines

Two in three wine buyers are moderating in some way. Globally NOLO wine accounts for 1.7% value share of total wine (Source: Wine Intelligence, Nov 24). While this is expected to grow, flavour remains a key barrier to the growth of the category. The way people are consuming wine is also changing with occasion-based drinking on the rise.

The primary objective of this CRC-P is to establish the Australian wine sector as the largest global producer of lifestyle wines. With the aim of becoming the number one exporter of wines in this category to the US, Europe, South East Asia and the Middle East. This will achieve growth in global sales, safeguarding the long-term economic viability of the Australian wine industry, while also servicing consumers that may want to moderate or abstain from alcohol consumption.

We want to position the Australian wine sector as the largest global producer of NOLO wines.
— Jamie Saint, Australian Vintage’s Chief Winemaker

“We’re extremely grateful to receive the Federal Government’s support," says Australian Vintage’s Chief Winemaker Jamie Saint. "The grant allows us to conduct research with a key objective of optimising the flavour and mouthfeel of no and low products as well as drilling down into consumer and market insights of the category.

The opportunity to work with a group of leading industry partners to take the growing NOLO category to the next level is something we are enormously excited by, improving the competitiveness, productivity and sustainability of the Australian wine industry.
— Jamie Saint, Australian Vintage’s Chief Winemaker

Australia has a clear opportunity to lead the world in NOLO wine research and development, as it has done in other areas of winemaking and viticulture. Understanding what it takes to create and market great-tasting, quality NOLO wines that appeal to consumers globally will drive job creation and help to rebalance supply and demand in our grape and wine sector, ensuring a sustainable future for Australian wine.

Further information