Any definition you can find of the word “wine” also includes the word “alcohol.” This includes wines that have no alcohol, which are occasionally called alcohol-free.
However, the fact that we define normal wine as having alcohol kind of puts the phrase “alcohol-free wine” into a strange category, almost the way jumbo shrimp is an oxymoron.
From a scientific perspective, wine is the result of any fruit that’s fermented, either accidentally or by design, and in which the fruits’ sugars (such as fructose, glucose or sucrose) are converted into ethanol and carbon dioxide (CO2).
With traditional table wine, the original intention, for hundreds of years, alcohol usually remained relatively constant at between 11 percent and 14 percent, with almost all dry table wines (starting about 1800 through about 1980) staying between 12 percent and 13.5 percent.
Alcohol in and of itself has little flavor except for that of alcohol, which might be noticed by sniffing an ounce of vodka. In higher concentrations, alcohol provides a sweetening element on the palate, which is why high-alcohol wines tend to taste sweet, even if they are technically without any sugar at all.
There has been much serious discussion in the past few weeks, not only on the internet, but also in newspaper articles, about the effects of alcohol on the human body. Some people now say that even a few sips of wine can be detrimental. Others argue for moderation in everything and say that it has never been proven that a glass of wine or two per day is particularly harmful to healthy adults.
Yet when we peruse wine store shelves for even simple, dry table wines these days, almost everything we can find is above 14 percent alcohol, which is significantly higher than it ever was when I became involved with wine on a daily basis.
Frankly, I do not like the taste of alcohol. I prefer wines with 12 percent alcohol. If it were possible to produce a 4 percent or 5 percent alcohol wine that had excellent flavor, went with food, and displayed charm, I'd be the first to buy one.
Over the past 50 years or more, serious wine scientists have delved into this, but no one has yet been able to make a satisfactory dry wine with very low alcohol. Since this is also a health issue for many people, it would certainly be a boon if such a drink were created.
Dozens of scientists have written about alcohol intolerance, which is “an inherited metabolic disorder” that seems to have more prominence in women than in men, according to an article published by the Cleveland Clinic.
An article published by the National Institutes of Health explains that an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase “is involved in alcohol metabolism,” and a deficiency in this “is present in Asians, but not Caucasians and African-Americans.”
So, it is obvious that low-alcohol or zero-alcohol products can have health benefits for some people.
