Non-Alcoholic Wines: the NON Difference

Aaron Trotman calls himself a “food explorer” and a sense of adventure permeates his alternative wine company NON. Trotman, a serial entrepreneur from Melborne Australia was inspired by Anthony Bourdain when he began a journey traveling the world with his wife Miranda back in 2010 in search of the best food they could find. They booked tasting menus at Michelin-starred restaurants and, while he enjoyed the available wine pairings, Miranda, who doesn’t drink, went for mocktails, which to their surprise were often more creative and interesting than the fine wine in the pairings. That’s when it hit him. Zero-proof beverages, whether they are beer, wine, spirits or mocktails, don’t have to be boring. By creating the right beverage, he found a way to further elevate a fine dining experience without alcohol.

The Market for Alternative Wine

According to the International Wines and Spirits Record (IWSR), the market for zero proof beverages is on the rise with no- and low-alcohol beer/cider, wine, spirits, and ready-to-drink (RTD) products growing by more than 7% in volume across 10 key global markets in 2022. Like many entrepreneurs, Trotman already had a sense of his target market. Even better, because a restaurant can charge more for them, than say sparkling water, he knew it could provide another revenue stream, all while providing a more upscale experience for the diner.

Non-alcoholic beverages can provide similar experiences to traditional alcoholic drinks and should be evaluated on their own merits. In fact, Trotman resists having his product be associated with alcohol at all. He founded Non in order to provide bars and restaurants with a wine alternative that could stand on its own when paired with a tasting menu.

While some restaurants have figured out how to craft a beverage that appeals to foodies, there wasn’t a lot of standardization, so Trotman set out to create an accessible, repeatable, and delicious, experience geared for diners. He literally decided to bottle it. “I decided to build a kitchen. But it’s a kitchen that just makes drinks. And my restaurant is the world. And my dishes come in a glass bottle in liquid form.”

An Alternative to Traditional Alcohol Free Wine

NON non-alcoholic wine — NON bottle and glass

“At the start it was centered around Miranda and making something awesome for her and then, with my entrepreneurial, outlandish spirit, I was like, this is just a really good idea. I think the world needs this,” he recalls adding, “Basically once I started doing research, I saw that this is really a big thing. There are non-alcoholic beers and there’s spirits, but there’s nothing really for this, this wine moment.” As anyone who has tried dealcoholized wine knows, it tends to be not very satisfying. Technically speaking, creating a beverage that provides the full sensory experience of glass of wine is difficult at best. If you spent several years in a laboratory, you might be able to remove the alcohol while preserving the flavor and mouthfeel but Trotman isn’t the type of person to wait. Instead he flipped the script. When founding NON, Trotman drew on his earlier experience developing cosmetics to come up with the right combination of ingredients to make something premium and high quality.

The Formula

“What we make is something that has fruit, tannins, salt, and acid. They’re the four markers that we’re looking for. And the best way to do that is by using real ingredients prepared by chefs, and then making interesting full body concoctions that we have a lot of control over by you by extracting each element using techniques such as freeze drying, dehydrations, roasting fruits, all those sorts of things,” Trotman says, Ethanol carries a lot of flavor and body so it needs to be replaced with real ingredients when making non-alcoholic wine.” Once you get away from the expectation that this should taste like wine and enjoy Non for what it is, you start to realize that Non is actually a delicious (not too sweet) adult beverage.

After three months and 50 iterations of his wine alternative, Trotman reached out to his friends in the hospitality business to see what they thought of his product. He brought bottles around to restaurants in his car. When they bought up all of his product, he knew he had something. By solving a problem for the restaurants, he found a ready market. “They were like, we don’t have to make these in house. That’s really hard. It’s really expensive.”

A Culinary Approach

Making a vat of NON with oranges — NON oranges photo coutesy of NON

Instead of just removing the alcohol as some of his competitors have tried, Non works closely with actual chefs to come up with “recipes” for their wines that are balanced and sophisticated. Instead of sweet juice, you get a still or sparkling beverage intended as a substitute for wine. Other collaborators include chemists and bakers, anyone that has a good sense of how to balance ingredients to achieve a desired outcome is welcome in the NON kitchen.

Non doesn’t taste exactly like wine, but it comes in a wine bottle and is intended to be served in a wine glass, and has tasting notes and suggested food pairing suggestions, so the experience is similar. It comes in several flavors NON 1 (salted raspberry & chamomile), NON 2 (caramelized pear and kombu) NON 3 (toasted cinnamon & yuzu) NON 5 (lemon marmalade and hibiscus) and NON 7 (stewed cherry & coffee).

Adrienne Stillman Krausz, who runs the leading nonalcoholic retailer, Dry Goods Beverage Company, points out that the industry is divided among producers who make alternative beverages like Non and those that are trying to mimic the taste of alcohol. “Non is marketed as a wine substitute in the sense that it can take the place of wine on the table,” she says. “To that end, that’s been very successful.”

The Future for a Wine Alternative

Bottles of NON non-alcoholic wine — NON bottles photo credit NON

Consumer acceptance is growing, and expectations are becoming more sophisticated. “We’ve found that having a non-alcoholic program that includes beer, spirits, and a wine alternative and putting it on an online menu is important,” says Trotman, “customers want to know that they can still have an elevated experience with a tasting menu even if they don’t drink.” He compares it to the prevalence of vegetarian options you see now compared to, say, five years ago.

Non stands on its own, both as a great alternative to wine, but also a product that has a unique taste and a sophisticated flavor profile. By replacing ethanol with real ingredients, Trotman has largely succeeded in his goal to provide an elevated experience for customers who prefer not to drink or to moderate their intake. After marketing to Australian fine-dining restaurants, Trotman is now focusing on expanding into the US market.