Dealcoholising wine: technology is only part of the answer

Removing alcohol from wine or beer is relatively easy to explain. Doing so while preserving a balanced, expressive and enjoyable product is far more complex.
Alcohol is more than a percentage printed on a bottle. It contributes to the product’s structure, roundness, perception of aromas and length on the palate.
Removing it therefore inevitably changes the original balance.
That is the core challenge of dealcoholisation: it is not simply a matter of extracting alcohol. You need to understand what that extraction will change and work on the product as a whole to build a new balance.
I have been working on these questions since the 1990s. Technologies have evolved, equipment has improved and consumer expectations have risen considerably. But the fundamental challenge remains the same: to limit the impact of dealcoholisation on the product while reaching the desired alcohol level.

Dealcoholisation is carried out on wine that has already undergone alcoholic fermentation.
The principle is to remove all or part of the ethanol present in the product.
On paper, the objective seems simple. In practice, ethanol and the other components of wine do not behave independently of one another.
Alcohol contributes in particular to volume and a sense of roundness on the palate. It also affects the perception and volatility of certain aromatic compounds.
When alcohol is removed, the sensory balance changes. Acidity may appear more pronounced, the palate lighter, and the aromatic profile may shift.
Some volatile compounds may also be carried away or altered during the process. The challenge is therefore to remove ethanol while controlling, as far as possible, the consequences for the rest of the product.
This is why final quality never depends on the technology alone.

There is no single way to dealcoholise wine.
Different technologies are used across the sector, each with its own characteristics and constraints. The choice depends in particular on the starting product, the target level of dealcoholisation, the volumes to be processed and the desired organoleptic profile.

Membrane technologies
Reverse osmosis and other membrane processes use membranes to separate different fractions of the wine.
With reverse osmosis, a fraction containing water and alcohol, among other components, is separated from the rest of the product. This fraction must then be treated to remove the alcohol before the desired components can be reintroduced.
One advantage of these technologies is the ability to work at relatively low temperatures.
However, dealcoholisation involves several successive operations and may need to be combined with another technique depending on the alcohol level to be reached.

The spinning cone column
The Spinning Cone Column, or SCC, uses a succession of rotating and stationary cones to promote mass transfer between phases under vacuum.
The process can be used in several stages: one to recover part of the volatile aromatic compounds and another to remove the alcohol. The recovered aromatic fraction can then be used in the work on the final product.
This approach therefore allows aroma management to be partially separated from alcohol removal.
As with other technologies, however, the quality of the result depends as much on how the process is controlled as on the technical principle itself.

Low-temperature vacuum evaporation
This is the approach we currently favour for our non-alcoholic wines at Maison 1895.
The principle is based on a simple physical property: when pressure decreases, boiling temperature also decreases.
Under vacuum, ethanol can therefore be evaporated at significantly lower temperatures than would be required at atmospheric pressure.
Depending on the equipment and settings used, treatment can take place at temperatures of around 30 to 50 °C.
The benefit is not simply that we “heat less”. It is about limiting the product’s thermal exposure while the alcohol is being removed and, as a result, reducing the impact of the process on the wine’s characteristics.
But working at low temperature is not enough.
Temperature, vacuum level, treatment time, flow rate and the behaviour of the wine during processing are all parameters that can influence the result.
They cannot be managed independently: adjusting one parameter to favour alcohol extraction can also alter the behaviour of other compounds in the wine.
Dealcoholisation is therefore less about finding one ideal setting than about balancing process efficiency with the quality of the resulting product.

The same dealcoholisation principles can be applied to beer, with different balances linked in particular to malt, hops and fermentation-derived compounds. Here too, the objective is not simply to remove alcohol, but to preserve the product’s character and work on its final balance.
This expertise is also applied today within Maison 1895 through Bière des Amis, which offers both alcoholic and non-alcoholic references.

When I began working with dealcoholisation technologies in the 1990s, the market was still very different from the one we know today.
Volumes were limited and expectations of non-alcoholic products were not comparable to those of today.
Since then, equipment has improved and our understanding of how products behave during dealcoholisation has progressed.
But perhaps the most important change is the level of expectation.
Today’s consumer choosing a non-alcoholic wine is no longer simply looking for an alternative when they do not want or are unable to drink alcohol.
They expect a product that is enjoyable to drink and that can naturally find its place at the aperitif or at the table.
That expectation fundamentally changes the way we work.
Reaching a given alcohol level remains a technical requirement. But on its own, it is no longer a measure of success.

After all these years, one conviction has become clear to me: dealcoholisation cannot correct what was not right to begin with.
Technology is a tool. An essential one, but only one tool among others.
The raw material, the profile of the original wine, process control and blending are interdependent.
Progress comes from mastering them together.
This is also why two wines treated according to a comparable technological principle can produce very different results.
There is no single parameter that can make a good non-alcoholic wine on its own.
The whole process matters.

This experience now informs the work carried out on the non-alcoholic beverages developed by Maison 1895, particularly Vintense, Héritage 1895 and Bière des Amis.
Our approach is to consider the final product as a whole rather than treat dealcoholisation as an isolated operation.
It starts with the choice of wine.
Then come the target profile, dealcoholisation parameters, tastings and blending work.
Each stage influences the next.
Our objective is therefore not simply to produce a wine from which the alcohol has been removed.
It is to build, without alcohol, a new balance that makes you want another glass.

Jean-Pierre Stassen is an independent R&D consultant specialising in fermented and non-alcoholic beverages.
He has been working with dealcoholisation technologies since the 1990s and today supports Maison 1895 in the development of non-alcoholic beverages.
His experience includes dealcoholisation processes applied to wine and beer, as well as formulation and balancing work on dealcoholised products.

Cette expérience nourrit aujourd’hui le travail mené autour des boissons sans alcool développées par Maison 1895, notamment avec Vintense, Héritage 1895 et Bière des Amis.
Notre approche consiste à penser le produit final dans son ensemble plutôt qu’à considérer la désalcoolisation comme une opération isolée.
Cela commence par le choix du vin.
Viennent ensuite le profil recherché, les paramètres de désalcoolisation, les dégustations et le travail d’assemblage.
Chaque étape influence la suivante.
Notre objectif n’est donc pas simplement d’obtenir un vin dont l’alcool a été retiré.
Il est de parvenir, sans lui, à construire un nouvel équilibre qui donne envie de reprendre un verre.

Cette expérience nourrit aujourd’hui le travail mené autour des boissons sans alcool développées par Maison 1895, notamment avec Vintense, Héritage 1895 et Bière des Amis.
Notre approche consiste à penser le produit final dans son ensemble plutôt qu’à considérer la désalcoolisation comme une opération isolée.
Cela commence par le choix du vin.
Viennent ensuite le profil recherché, les paramètres de désalcoolisation, les dégustations et le travail d’assemblage.
Chaque étape influence la suivante.
Notre objectif n’est donc pas simplement d’obtenir un vin dont l’alcool a été retiré.
Il est de parvenir, sans lui, à construire un nouvel équilibre qui donne envie de reprendre un verre.

Jean-Pierre Stassen est consultant R&D indépendant, spécialisé dans les boissons fermentées et sans alcool. Il travaille sur les technologies de désalcoolisation depuis les années 1990 et accompagne aujourd’hui Maison 1895 dans le développement de boissons sans alcool.
Son expérience couvre notamment les procédés de désalcoolisation appliqués au vin et à la bière ainsi que le travail de formulation et d’équilibre des produits désalcoolisés.