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Top 10 alcohol-free wine brands in the UK

02 January 2024 By Patrick Schmitt

As the new year begins, and thoughts of dry January return, it’s apt to consider the best-selling alcohol-free wine brands in the UK, which include a celebrity-backed label and a fizz from Bordeaux.

Representing one of the few growth areas in the UK drinks market, the no- and low-alcohol wine category is an area to watch, with sales driven by a number of factors, primarily a growing urge among consumers to moderate their alcohol intake.

This is not necessarily due to people moving entirely to alcohol-free wines, but switching between standard-strength products and the likes of any of the brands listed below so they can keep down their booze intake, either during one drinking occasion, or over the course of a longer period.

So what’s selling well? The market leader, with a share of the alcohol-free wine category of around 26% (based on sales of a little below 2.5 million bottles) is Nozeco – a sparkling wine that, despite the fact it sounds like it would be an alcohol-free Prosecco, is a fizz from Bordeaux.

Owned by Les Grands Chais de France (GCF), Nozeco is made from de-alcoholised wine at the French group’s production facility in Landiras, not far from the city of Bordeaux, where a state-of-the-art de-alcoholisation plant has been installed.

Actually launched as Nosecco in 2017 – where it was first unveiled by GCF at the London Wine Fair – following complaints by the Prosecco consortium (DOC), the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) rejected a trade mark application for the French alcohol-free brand.

It then re-launched as Nozeco in 2021 and has gone on to become the UK’s best-selling alcohol-free wine brand.

Behind the market leader is McGuigan Zero, which was launched by Australian Vintage into the UK in 2020, and now has a 17% share of the overall alcohol-free wine category – a sector that is now worth around £44m, with a total of approximately 8.5m bottles sold in the 12-month period until the end of October.

Eisberg, then Freixenet, are the third and fourth largest no-alcohol wine brands in the UK, followed by Kylie Minogue, who launched an alcohol-free sparkling rosé in October 2022, which quickly became a sales success in the market.

Other major players in this category include Torres, who were a pioneering entrant to the sector with its near-decade-old Natureo brand, while Australian producers seem to dominate the alcohol-free wine market, with other top 10 best-sellers including labels from Hardy’s and Wolf Blass, as well as a further one from Australian Vintage, called Not Guilty.

Please see below for the top 10, which is based on data compiled by Circana for the year-long period until the end of October. It excludes any retailer own label products, which together account for around 17% of the alcohol-free wine category.

As noted above, the overall no-alcohol wine category is worth around £44m (up around 14%), with a total market size by volume of approximately 8.5m bottles (up 7% year-on-year).

Meanwhile, the average price of an alcohol-free wine in the UK is around £3.80. Although termed no/alcohol-free, the category encompasses all wine brands with an abv of 0.5% or lower.

For a full report on the no and low wine market in the UK and worldwide, as well as the results of 2023’s No and Low Alcohol Wine Masters, please see the January edition of the drinks business.