My team will present our research on South Africa today, however, I wanted to highlight one particularly interesting thing we found.
We will highlight how South African winemakers are responding to global trends, and this will support them to grow more quickly. One such trend is health & wellness: Consumers are increasingly looking for low- or no-alcohol beverage options to better support their overall health. I have been interested in CBD beverages, as one such example, and I've tried options like Recess.
We found a winemaker called Leopard's Leap, located in South Africa, and they produce a low alcohol wine that is made with high frequency spinning at a high temperature. It has the flavor of a medium-bodied red (think Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with a Cinsaut), but the alcohol content is only 0.5%. At that rate, you'd have to drink 9 bottles an hour to exceed the legal driving limit!
This made me wonder - would this be appealing to consumers like me and my classmates? I personally see a time and a place for this - like when I'm driving to a dinner and only want to have one "real" glass of wine, but I want to keep hanging out.
I would also like to learn more about the de-alcoholization process. How much does it cost, and is it feasible to do on many different blends?
What do you think - is this appealing?
Emily,
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing up this interesting topic! I've thought about it a lot from the beer perspective because non-alcoholic beers are a major trend. These are my thoughts:
1. I've never tried non-alcoholic wine. I'm curious but I'm not eager to. The non-alcoholic beer I've had, even by makers I respect, is terrible.
2. The lifting of spirits is as much part of the experience as the taste, texture, etc. I think it's just as unsettling to have a glass of wine that doesn't produce that effect as it is to drink a glass of wine only for the effect. For the whole experience, they go hand in hand.
3. I can see this being a good temporary option for someone in your position (driving) or pregnant or whatever. But I wonder if it isn't better to just cultivate the habit of not drinking in those circumstances. If that makes the abstainer feel weird, that's a problem with our culture. It should be 100% fine not to drink whenever.
4. It won't work for a lot of people who aren't drinking for other reasons. Athletes don't want all the sugars and everything else that's still in there. Recovering alcoholics can't have something so close to the real thing.
5. I thought seriously about making non-alcoholic beer because lean launchpad doesn't allow businesses that focus on alcohol. But because of 1-4 I decided to forgo the class and focus on the business I wanted to build.
My guess is that it's going to be a big trend in the coming year because everyone will want to get a piece of this big market. But I don't think it will be big and permanent. As people try it and it's not as good, they will stick to sparkling water with lime.
Cheers!