Alcohol-Free on the Menu – Opportunity or Must-Have?

Just a few years ago, guests who didn’t want to drink alcohol were often left with a choice of juice, mineral water or soft drinks. But times are changing – and so are drinks menus. Proxies, alcohol-free spirits and dealcoholised wines are expanding the range of sophisticated alcohol-free alternatives. The producers behind them are just as diverse: newcomers to the drinks business as well as winemakers, distillers and juice producers. What they share is a response to growing demand for alcohol-free options.

Gen Z – today’s 18- to 30-year-olds – is doing something previous generations might hardly have imagined: drinking little or no alcohol. At the same time, attitudes across society are shifting, with many people drinking less and making more conscious choices about when and what they consume.

The impact is being felt across hospitality and retail: sales of wine, beer and spirits are declining. Many restaurants have only recently recovered from the revenue losses caused by Covid and are now facing another challenge – rethinking their beverage offering. Around 40% of restaurant revenue needs to come from beverages for operations to remain profitable. If guests are drinking less alcohol, the alcohol-free offer needs to step up.

More and more alcohol-free products are entering the market – but they need to be found. Initially, dealcoholised wines were placed alongside conventional wines in supermarkets, while alcohol-free spirits sat next to their alcoholic counterparts. The problem: people who don’t drink alcohol may never visit those sections. Retailers have recognised this and are increasingly giving alcohol-free products dedicated space and greater visibility.

ProWein has been taking the same approach for the past three years with a dedicated No/Low area. It sends a clear signal – and creates a real opportunity. Exhibitors with No/Low products in their portfolio can position them exactly where interested visitors are looking: visible, focused and easy to find. No one wants to walk through every hall searching for alcohol-free alternatives. In business, time matters.

Many exhibitors have had No/Low products in their portfolios for some time – but too often, they remain in the background, without context or active promotion. If you offer No/Low but don’t make it visible, you risk missing exactly the visitors who are looking for it. And at ProWein, there are more of them than ever before.

Some businesses have understood that No/Low belongs on the menu – and still struggle to make it work. The problem isn’t necessarily the product. It’s how it is presented.

One example from the industry: at the renowned St. Moritz Gourmet Festival, an individual No/Low pairing was available on request for every dinner. Each venue developed its own approach – from proxies and dealcoholised wines and sparkling wines to sparkling tea. It proves that it can be done. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

No/Low needs more context than conventional wine. The category is young, terminology is inconsistent and production methods vary widely. Dealcoholised is not the same as alcohol-free distilled, while a proxy follows a completely different concept from sparkling tea. Exhibitors who can explain these differences at their stand – clearly, concisely and without unnecessary jargon – have a real advantage.

In practice, that means giving No/Low a dedicated and prominent place at the stand, rather than hiding it at the back. It means having trained staff who understand the products and can put them into context. And it means offering tastings – not simply as a gesture, but as a sales argument. If people can taste a product, they are more likely to buy it.

Pairing suggestions are not a nice-to-have either; they are a powerful sales tool. Hospitality professionals think in terms of courses and drinks menus. Show them where and how a product fits, and you make the decision to list it significantly easier.

Good intentions are no substitute for product knowledge. Anyone presenting a No/Low portfolio at a trade fair needs to explain what is in the product, how it is made and where it can work in hospitality. These are exactly the questions buyers will ask. If you can’t answer them, you risk losing the contact to the next stand.

ProWein is where listing decisions are made, first contacts are established and new categories are discovered. If you offer No/Low but don’t show it, you miss that moment. If you show it but can’t explain it, you miss it too.

No/Low has found its place at ProWein. Now it’s time to bring the category to life.