“My family didn’t want to talk to me for a year, that was my “betrayal”. And even today I get hate mail from winemakers that I’m losing the market,” she says.
“But now my father congratulates me and says I’m the engine on the wine train. And if we’re surviving today in these tough times, it’s because we’ve moved to the alcohol-free market.”
“It was very hard for the purists to accept,” says Bernard Rabui, winemaker at the Bordeaux Families cooperative.
“But we have to develop. The fact is that customers are not where they used to be. So we’ve got to go and get them or they’ll go somewhere else.”
Proponents of alcohol-free wine believe in many ways that it allows non-drinkers – who previously felt excluded – to join in on the wine banter. And it is true that the rituals of discovery, sniffing, description and comparison are now open to all.
“We want to try to bring back the France of our youth, when everyone was sitting around the dinner table drinking wine and it was a real moment of sharing,” says Anne Cattané.
“And these days, the only way we’re going to be able to do that is if still wines become part of the culture.”
“The idea that the wine world has always been the way it is now is nonsense,” says oenologist Broschet.
“Everything is developing. Once upon a time, the barrel was an innovation. Cork was an innovation; grape varieties were innovations. And now there’s something new that could help save the industry and the beautiful landscape and culture that go with it. .
“As (poet) Paul Valeri said, what is tradition but successful innovation?”
