Update on Oceano Zero

Last month, we told you about our new Oceano Zero non-alcoholic wines. This month, we’re excited to give you an update on the formulation of those wines.

We’re working with BevZero on this process and, a couple of weeks ago, we visited them for two days of wine tasting and adjusting. These wines were made and aged just like our regular wines, and then dealcoholized. The finished wines will actually be 0.5% alcohol by volume – about the same as kombucha. Keeping a trace of the alcohol lets us keep as much of the wine’s flavors and aromas as possible.

We spent a day on the Chardonnay and a day on the Pinot Noir, focusing on acid/sweetness balance, mouth feel, and flavor correction. We ended up adding in some natural flavors of orange blossom for the Chardonnay and rhubarb for the Pinot Noir which we were missing after the dealcoholization. 

One of the most interesting parts of the process was seeing our flavors and aromas which had been removed from the wine isolated and captured in bottles to be returned later. The capturing of those compounds is made possible with a combination of low temperatures, brief residence times and very thin, turbulent films. 

The next step is to blend the rest of the barrels of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir according to the formulations we made last week, dealcoholize them, filter them, and bottle them. They will be bottled in 750ml glass with screw caps and labeled with FDA-approved nutritional panels and complete ingredient lists. We will hold the bottles for 30 days before releasing them to customers. 
We hope to have the non-alcoholic wines available for sale by June 1, when customers can purchase online and in-store at retail outlets. To stay up to date on where to buy our non-alcoholic wines, please join our interest list. Please follow us on Instagram @oceano.zero.