Argentina approved the production of non-alcoholic wine

Through the Resolution RESOL-2024-5-APN-INV#MEC, the National Wine Institute (INV) approved the commercialization of low-alcohol and non-alcoholic wines, which until now were produced within the country but were not yet regularized. Thanks to this, there is 1 updated category, as well as 1 new category. We are talking about partially dealcoholized wine and dealcoholized wine, also known as non-alcoholic wine.

On March 20, a law was passed in Argentina that could completely change the rules of the game in the Argentine wine market. It is RESOL-2024-5-APN-INV#MEC, which introduces a new category for Argentine wine: non-alcoholic wine. This has one objective: to regulate a practice that wineries have been implementing for years, which is the partial or total dealcoholization of wine.  

Although the INV had already approved a law that allowed the production and commercialization of low-alcohol wines, this regulation not only introduced the concept of non-alcoholic wine, but also modified the existing legislation for non-alcoholic wine.

Specifically, the new law implies that to be called partially dealcoholized wine, a wine must present a partial dealcoholization process, with a loss of alcohol above 20%, but the final volumetric alcohol content must be equal to or higher than 0.5%.

In addition, the newly introduced category (alcohol-free wine) must have an alcohol content of less than 0.5%.  

These regulations are part of a change in the Argentine wine market, where more and more wineries are deciding to add wines with less and less alcohol to their product lines, targeting younger consumers.