SA Fairtrade dealcoholized wines hit the UK

By Lisa Riley

Published: 19 January, 2021

Cognato Wines has introduced its South African range of Fairtrade certified dealcoholized wines to the UK market.

The UK launch follows an initial rosé and red launch in June 2019 in Sweden, the homeland of Cognato co-founders David Sommestad and Adam Malmnäs, who have since then continued to develop the brand.

It recently added a white wine to the range, with each of the variants produced in South Africa using grapes grown in the Coastal Region of the Western Cape.

The newcomer would plug a gap for a dealcoholized wine complimenting a wide range of foods, said the duo, adding they saw the UK as a “key market” for Cognato due to the large demand for low & no drinks.

“The UK is the first market outside of Sweden where we are launching our [dealcoholized] wines, which have been on sale since mid-December, with the initial sales and customer feedback great," said Sommestad.

“The UK market really is in the forefront of low & no alcohol products, with a large number of consumers wanting a variety of high quality low & no alcohol products."

Malmnäs added: "We wanted to produce a dealcoholized wine that we, as wine drinkers, would be happy to enjoy with a good meal. Both David and I have young children and we often find that on weekends we have to drive and fetch them from various activities so having a glass of wine at lunch or dinner often becomes impossible, so we needed a good alternative.”

Founded in 2018, Cognato became a Fairtrade certified producer in 2020. The range is available online now via Dry Drinker and Wisebartender.

Last week, the WSTA launched a new guidance around the labelling of low & no alcohol drinks as a record number of Brits explore the category.