ProWein survey reveals opportunities for no-low and sparkling wines

By James Bayley

Published: 24 April, 2023

In a survey of nearly 2,500 wine experts from 47 countries, a special report from Prowein 2022 suggests 46% of producers and merchants want to adapt their portfolios to market trends.

Further still, 27% of respondents are already investing in innovative products.

On a global scale, the ‘no-low’ category is among the fastest-growing beverage segments. According to the IWSR, global no-low sales in 2022 exceeded $22 billion and the current annual sales growth of 7% is expected to continue for the next five years through to 2026.

Read more: Prowein 2023: The Harpers rundown

The international growth of the no-low market has been largely driven by alcohol-free beers and ciders that were mature in taste. However, over the past few years, major progress has been made in de-alcoholising wines. Although the market share of wines and sparkling wines with no or low alcohol is still small, it continues to post very good growth rates in many countries. As a result, ProWein, in cooperation with Meininger publishing house, organised the 'World of Zero' focusing on de-alcoholised at this year’s event for the first time.

Low-alcohol or de-alcoholised wines were viewed as trending products by one-third of respondents. The trade overall sees better opportunities for low-alcohol wines than for no-alcohol wines. Apart from this global trend, there are strong regional differences between countries.

The UK ranks first for both no and low wines in terms of trader approval and up to two in three UK merchants expect these products to perform well. The high approval rating might be influenced by the UK tax system which taxes these wines significantly less or not at all. For de-alcoholised products, the Netherlands and Finland follow ahead of Germany with roughly one-third of traders approving.

In most countries, above all in Norway, USA, Canada, Spain and Switzerland, low wines are in greater demand as trend products than no-alcohol wines. In the top three markets, over 50% of merchants are interested in low wines. Germany and the Netherlands have been the only markets so far where the demand for no and low wines is rated as equal by the trade. This also correlates with the results found by IWSR according to which Germany is the most strongly developed market for no-alcohol wines and where the vacuum-based process for the de-alcoholisation of wine was patented in 1908.

Meanwhile, to gauge the relative sales opportunities of the various wine types, in November 2022 almost 1,150 wine merchants, importers, distributors, restaurateurs and hoteliers were asked which products they felt would be in demand in 2023. The list of trending products is headed by sparkling wines, Champagne, Cava and Prosecco, which have already posted very good market successes over the past few years.

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