Low-Alcohol and Nonalcoholic Wines: Production Methods, Compositional Changes, and Aroma Improvement

Abstract

Nonalcoholic wine (NW) has attracted the interest of winemakers and researchers in recent years, mainly due to the increasing market share of NW (≤ 1% alcohol by volume), the health risks associated with the consumption of wine, the global trend toward healthier lifestyles, and the uncompromising cardioprotective effects of NW. NW can be produced using several methods, particularly, dealcoholization of wines, which is mainly achieved by physical dealcoholization methods. However, the dealcoholization of wine has two major drawbacks. The first drawback is legal since the laws vary according to each country. The second disadvantage is technical since it is difficult to dealcoholize a wine while maintaining its original organoleptic characteristics. Both the aromatic qualities (volatile composition) and taste (sensory characteristics) of the dealcoholized wine (DW) tend to worsen the greater the decrease in its alcoholic strength. This makes the resulting wine have a different flavor and aroma. Improvement of the aroma of DW after dealcoholization could help wine producers limit undesirable effects and increase consumer acceptance. This chapter is focused on the popular techniques used in wine dealcoholization, their impact on the phenolic composition, volatile composition, sensory characteristics, and the state-of-the-art methods of improving the aroma profile of DW.