If you love your hearty reds – unfortunately, and I am very sorry to break it to you: that’s where the story of Zero Alcohol wines becomes a bit sad. And it’s so frustrating to keep getting bottles with great reviews just to taste a grape juice. I do believe most nice reviews have been written by those who are long term non-drinkers, so their palate has accustomed to Zero (sweet) standards or are non wine drinkers. And of course – online retailers pushing their products. I can’t think of another explanation how the taste of grape juice can be called “wine”, or something obviously sweet being called dry. Hence I am here to be your guide for non alcoholic red wines available in Australia.
However: I was very relieved to discover that despite that there are some good ones out there!!! And feel free to leave the comment if you tried my favourites and what were your thoughts on them.
Having said that, you simply cannot (at least for now!) get full and robust body of the Shiraz, for example, without the alcohol. And what I found is that it takes good Zero Shiraz to make it feel like ok Pinot Noir. Which means, that much lighter Zero Pinots unfortunately simply do not have the body or the character of “real” red wine without the alcohol and simply taste like grape juice.
Hot tip for your non alcoholic reds:
When it comes to Zero Reds, (the good ones, as grape juicy ones go down the sink anyway, so no need to worry) I found that they tend to go sweeter when oxygenated. So unlike their alcoholic cousins, make sure you don’t leave it open while drinking, don’t use decanter and try to finish the bottle (usually is not a problem for me even with alcoholic wines, so Zero should be a breeze to finish 😂). Or if you still can’t finish the bottle, use wine preserver to pump the air out so it doesn’t taste like ribena the next day. But most likely it will anyway. Oh well.
So here’s the list of non alcoholic red wines you can get in Australia that I tasted, with the quick reference of 👍 or 👎 for you: