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CTyankee

(67,168 posts)
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 12:15 PM Sunday

Has anybody here tried lower alcohol wines?

My brand is 8% alcohol instead of 13% (I think, not sure what full percent wine usually is). It makes a nice drink for folks who are older and don't want a lot of alcohol but love wine. I like a light white wine on warmer days and a heavier red on cool days.

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Has anybody here tried lower alcohol wines? (Original Post) CTyankee Sunday OP
Sounds good. I must try it. badhair77 Sunday #1
My taste buds say that WhiteTara Sunday #2
What exactly does the alcohol do for the taste? CTyankee Sunday #3
It Depends On How The Alcohol Was Reduced ProfessorGAC Sunday #6
My recent summer wine is a 12% Pinot Grigio mixed with 50/50 with Perrier water or someting fizzy like it.. mitch96 Sunday #4
Low alcohol wine and beer have gotten much better Easterncedar Sunday #5
I don't do the grape juice scene, But beemerphill Sunday #7
I'm enjoying Peroni 00 beer. vanlassie 4 hrs ago #8
I've become a big fan of NA Good Time IPA bif 4 hrs ago #9

WhiteTara

(31,087 posts)
2. My taste buds say that
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 12:32 PM
Sunday

anything below 12% is swill and my go to is 14% Drink less with a more robust taste. But to each their own. Enjoy and I will too.

CTyankee

(67,168 posts)
3. What exactly does the alcohol do for the taste?
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 12:40 PM
Sunday

I also have a non-alcohol wine made by FRE that makes a great Merlot (my favorite). Their process is to make the full bodied wine first and then somehow remove just the alcohol, making the wine taste like Merlot but alcohol free.

I'm not sure what the merits of the alcohol are. The medical reports are warning more and more against all alcohol, espcially for those of us who are elderly.

ProfessorGAC

(74,706 posts)
6. It Depends On How The Alcohol Was Reduced
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 04:37 PM
Sunday

If it was reduced by using less juice & more water, your assessment is likely to be shared by everyone.
If it's done by vacuum distillation, it can affect taste some, but a proper reflux would return the majority of the other flavenoids to the remaining wine mixture. Taste might be pretty good.
Then, there is a zeolite treatment that has pore sizes to only capture polar organic compounds around the sizethanol. erhanol molecule.
The esters & aldehydes that give wine most of its flavor are too large to get trapped in the pores, and other furanic flavor compounds are both too big & not polar enough.
It's extremely effective in removing over 99% of the ethanol, but it's an expensive process.
There are zero alcohol beers that use the process, but I'm not aware of of any wine makers using it. There may be, I just don't know of them.

mitch96

(15,517 posts)
4. My recent summer wine is a 12% Pinot Grigio mixed with 50/50 with Perrier water or someting fizzy like it..
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 02:47 PM
Sunday

Very refreshing and only 6%. Goes well with a slice of pear..
I was curious about Kim Crawford "low alcohol" wine.
How much different was it from the full alcohol wine?
I was at a party and had some friends do a taste test. KC low alcohol vs KC regular cut 50% with water. No one but no one could tell the difference. So KC was selling wine cut with water for the same price as regular KC wine..
Good marketing I guess...
m

beemerphill

(590 posts)
7. I don't do the grape juice scene, But
Sun Oct 5, 2025, 04:58 PM
Sunday

Have found out that Heineken makes a great 0.0 Beer. It still tastes like a good beer without the nasties that give you a hangover. I do not know if this might pertain to wine, but I thought that it may be helpful.

bif

(26,294 posts)
9. I've become a big fan of NA Good Time IPA
Tue Oct 7, 2025, 01:22 PM
4 hrs ago

I quit drinking several years ago but I missed the hoppy taste of IPAs. This one does the trick!

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