Around fifty people, including wineries and professionals linked to the entire wine value chain, took part last Thursday, December 11, in the technical workshop “INNOTAST: dealcoholization of wines, a strategic opportunity for the Catalan sector?”, held at La Fassina in Vilafranca del Penedès and jointly promoted by INNOVI and the Vilafranca del Penedès City Council, with the collaboration of the Barcelona Provincial Council, INCAVI, Blue Dolphin, ALTR, BevZero and David Seijas.

The meeting highlighted the sector’s curiosity about an emerging field such as dealcoholized wines, a segment that creates market opportunities but also sparks debate and raises questions within the Catalan wine sector. The main objective of the event was to provide wineries with rigorous, up-to-date and well-validated information in order to facilitate a well-founded strategic reflection.

The event opened with a welcome address by the Councillor for Economic Promotion, Miquel Medialdea, who emphasized the importance of the role of local administrations in generating knowledge:
“It is essential that public administrations promote events like this, which foster innovation and help a sector as strategic for the Penedès to anticipate changes in the market.”

The session began with a question posed by Eloi Montcada, cluster manager at INNOVI, which set the tone for the debate: “Is dealcoholized wine still wine?”. A question that encapsulates the existing tensions between tradition, innovation, the market and consumer perception.

One of the central moments of the session was the presentation of the study promoted by the Vilafranca del Penedès City Council and carried out by INNOVI, presented by Gerard Pujol, project manager of the cluster. The report provides an in-depth analysis of how dealcoholized wines are produced, the European and North American regulatory framework, the available dealcoholization technologies, and the structure of the markets in Germany, the United States and Spain.

According to the study’s conclusions, alcohol-free wine is a clearly growing market, with projections of up to €2.6 billion by 2030, although in Spain it still represents a very small share: only 0.13% of wines marketed are dealcoholized.

The analysis focuses on Germany and the United States as benchmark markets. In Germany, although 0.0 wines account for less than 1% of total consumption, the figure rises to 5% in the case of sparkling wines, a particularly relevant fact in a context of a sharp decline in cava imports. In the United States, almost 2% of wines sold are already dealcoholized, with the presence of well-established brands and innovative start-ups which, in some cases, use wine of Spanish origin as the base product.

Pujol also pointed out other factors that make strategic reflection unavoidable, such as climate change, which accelerates grape ripening and can lead to wines with higher alcohol levels, as well as changes in consumption habits, especially among younger generations, who show a clear trend towards reducing or eliminating alcohol.

The workshop offered a plural perspective with the participation of dealcoholization technology providers, companies with innovative approaches and specialized shops with e-commerce platforms. This enriched the debate and made it possible to identify both the challenges and the opportunities involved in marketing these products in the local market.

The event concluded with a guided tasting of dealcoholized wines led by David Seijas, former sommelier at elBulli and co-founder of Gallina de Piel Wines. He provided professional criteria for tasting and evaluating this type of product, helping to demystify it and place it within a context of quality and high standards. During the tasting, participants were able to try different references from Gallina de Punk, as well as other dealcoholized wines produced by BevZero.

You can access the contents of the event through this link; https://www.youtube.com/@innovi-clustervitivinicola2807/videos