High consumer demand for sparkling wine products with a reduced alcohol content or without alcohol represents an opportunity for the sector. However, the rules for the production of de-alcoholised wines impose certain technological limitations on the production of sparkling wine products. According to the rules currently in force, wine products must have attained the characteristics and the minimum actual alcoholic strength of the corresponding product category before undergoing the de-alcoholisation process. This implies that de-alcoholised and partially de-alcoholised sparkling wine products can only be produced from sparkling wines of the same category. However, the de-alcoholisation process entirely removes the carbon dioxide from the initial sparkling wine. Consequently, to produce a sparkling wine product with reduced or no alcohol content, it is necessary to reintroduce the carbon dioxide in the partially or totally de-alcoholised wine using a new, separate process. Therefore, producers should be allowed to produce de-alcoholised or partially de-alcoholised sparkling wine, semi-sparkling wine, aerated sparkling wine and aerated semi-sparkling wine directly from a de-alcoholised or partially de-alcoholised still wine by means of second fermentation or the addition of carbon dioxide, as appropriate. This would enable the Union wine sector to benefit from new developments in consumer demand while maintaining its high quality production standards.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
