# What is this stuff which is sold as Non-Alcoholic Wine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-stuff-which-is-sold-as-non-alcoholic-wine/753353 "2016-04-28T18:28:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dunmurry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dunmurry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunmurry)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-stuff-which-is-sold-as-non-alcoholic-wine/753353/1 "2016-04-28T18:28:55Z")
So I was looking on the website of Sainsbury’s in the UK at some bottles of Non-Alcoholic Wine and it says 0.05% alcohol. And it says that at that level any alcohol in it is very hard to detect and anything less than 0.5% alcohol can be considered to be dealcoholized. Or maybe it contains as little alcohol as makes no difference. It says that under the Trade Descriptions Act in the UK it can be described as Non-Alcoholic Wine. So I was just wondering if anyone here has any experience buying these products and how they use them and why they would contain any alcohol at all as part of the fermentation process or with yeast or something and if it is any different to, say, alcohol in a mouthwash or as little alcohol ass makes no difference to the effects of the consumption of it like ginger wine or something like that? And also if you could give it to someone who wasn’t supposed to drink any alcohol then? ---
**Author:** ![kurtisokc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kurtisokc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurtisokc)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-stuff-which-is-sold-as-non-alcoholic-wine/753353/2 "2016-04-28T19:20:17Z")
Legally 0.5% is considered the cut-off point for how much alcohol a beverage may contain and still be considered non-alcoholic. Many fruit juices contain trace amounts of alcohol due to natural fermentation. The question is: how is non-alcoholic wine different from grape juice? I don’t know but I could think of two possibilities: (1) it is wine which has had its alcohol removed, which is basically another way of saying that it is grape juice with most of its sugar removed; or (2) it is just a marketing term for fancy grape juice. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-stuff-which-is-sold-as-non-alcoholic-wine/753353/3 "2016-04-28T19:22:52Z")
There are reviews on the Sainsbury page for the product. They pretty negative. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-stuff-which-is-sold-as-non-alcoholic-wine/753353/4 "2016-04-28T20:11:51Z")
It’s wine with the alcohol removed. More things happen when grape juice ferments than just sugar being converted to alcohol, and the chemistry gets pretty complex. Wine has tons of different compounds, but the chemistry is pretty irrelevant since you’re drinking it for the taste and you won’t know what that is until you try it. I tried some once and found it disgusting; but to each his own. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-stuff-which-is-sold-as-non-alcoholic-wine/753353/5 "2016-04-28T20:50:46Z")
In the UK according to this website: > **[Low alcohol drinks](https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/how-to-reduce-your-drinking/low-alcohol-drinks)** > > Did you know a swap to low alcohol can be a great way to reduce your drinking? Understand your options. the following applies: low-alcohol is between 0.5% and 1.2% ABV alcohol-free is anything less than 0.05% Between 0.05% and 0.5% I think might be “de-alcoholised”.