In a significant development for the Italian wine market, low alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks made from grapes can now be labelled and marketed as “wine”.
On 20 December 2024, Italy’s Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida signed a Decree allowing dealcoholized wines to be labelled as “wine”.
Previously, a product could not be labelled as “wine” in Italy if the alcohol content didn’t reach the minimum strength for its category (usually 8.5% or 9%, depending on the wine). This meant that products could not be called “alcohol-free wines” as they are in other countries, including the UK. Instead, a product would bear a label describing it as a “product based on grape must vinified and subsequently dealcoholized, obtaining an alcohol content of X.X%”.
The Decree applies to wines and sparkling wines of various types which have been partially or totally dealcoholized. A product can be described as “dealcoholized” wine if its alcoholic strength is less than 0.5% and “partially dealcoholized” if its alcoholic strength is more than 0.5% and less than the minimum strength for its category prior to dealcoholisation.
Dealcoholized wines are created by fermenting the natural sugar content in grapes to create wine, before removing the alcohol by distillation or inverse osmosis. In both processes, the wine’s fragrances are trapped and reintroduced to try to retain its distinctive taste.
However, it will not be permitted to carry out this process on categories of wine with protected designation of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indication (PGI). This means that it will still not be possible to create a low-alcohol Amarone or Chianti, for example.
The Decree brings the Italian market largely in line with other European countries which have for many years allowed the use of the term “wine” as part of a composite name for zero alcohol and low-alcohol grape products– as permitted by EU Regulation 1308/2013.
This marks a substantial change for the Italian market and comes only months after Lollobrigida had argued that dealcoholized products should not be called wine, in April 2024. Lollobrigida is understood to have come under pressure from winemakers who were keen to react to the trend towards lower alcohol consumption and the growing market for alcohol-free and low-alcohol beverages.