About
About The Dry Standard
The Dry Standard is Karl Hill’s independent review publication at drinkdrystandard.com, edited in Washington, DC. It reviews beverages at 0.5% ABV or less. We are especially interested in drinks that were fermented or distilled first and then had the alcohol taken out.
Identity
This publication
The Dry Standard is Karl Hill’s independent review publication at drinkdrystandard.com, edited in Washington, DC. It scores and classifies drinks at or below 0.5% ABV. It is not a venue guide or a social club.
What this site is
A firsthand tasting cellar with sourced production facts. A public score requires a glass we poured. Dealcoholized is not a synonym for nonalcoholic. Scores, rankings, and classification are independent of samples, retailers, and commercial status.
How to cite it
Name the publication, the editor, the review title, the tasting or research date, and the canonical URL on drinkdrystandard.com. Each review page prints a ready citation. Methodology and corrections live on this domain — not on a venue-map or events site that uses the same words.
The cellar
What we cover
Dealcoholized wine, beer, spirits, aperitifs, cider, sparkling wine, and ready-to-drink cocktails or spritzes. A product can appear here if it meets the ABV ceiling. U.S. distribution is not required. It will not be called dealcoholized unless we can show that alcohol was removed from a finished, or at least high-proof, alcoholic liquid.
Production
How we classify production
Dealcoholized
A documented alcohol-removal step: vacuum distillation, spinning cone column, reverse osmosis, membrane or cold filtration, osmotic distillation, or another named process.
360 bottles in the cellarAlternative
The drink was built as a nonalcoholic analogue from the start. Botanicals, flavors, juices, and extracts are legitimate tools. They are not dealcoholization.
64 bottles in the cellarNaturally low alcohol
A traditional process — fermentation, specialized yeasts, arrested fermentation — that finishes at or below 0.5% ABV without a separate removal step.
52 bottles in the cellarHybrid
The drink is defined by more than one approach: dealcoholized wine in a sangria, dealcoholized rum in a cola, or a fruit-wine blend. Adding grape must back after removal does not, by itself, make a hybrid.
38 bottles in the cellarUnclassified
The producer has not published a method we can cite. We do not infer one from a "0.0" on the label. Public label: Unclassified.
12 bottles in the cellarWhat we will not do
- Invent ABV, ingredients, origin, price, or a production method.
- Call a product dealcoholized because it is marketed as nonalcoholic.
- Preach sobriety, wellness, or “clean” living.
- Publish a review to hit a quota when the facts are thin.
- Stuff keywords into copy that should read like a magazine.
Tasting notes are opinion.
Production facts are sourced or omitted.
Scoring
The 100-point scale
The number is a quality score, not a likeness-to-ethanol score. A formulated aperitif can outscore a clumsy dealcoholized wine.
We weigh
- Flavor
- Is it good to drink?
- Aroma
- Does the nose have character, or only sweetness?
- Texture / body
- Does it have weight without gum-and-syrup tricks doing all the work?
- Finish
- Does it end, or collapse?
- Complexity
- More than one idea in the glass?
- Balance
- Sugar, acid, bitterness, carbonation — in proportion?
- Value
- Is the price honest for what you get?
- Authenticity to category
- Does a stout still behave like a stout?
Bands we use internally
- 90+ Rare; reorder / cellar reference.
- 85–89 Standout; shortlist material.
- 80–84 Clearly good; we would seek it again.
- 75–79 Solid everyday bottle when the style fits.
- 70–74 Drinkable with caveats.
- 60–69 Adequate; there is a reason to skip it.
- Below 60 Not recommended.
Facts may be researched. Scores are tasted. Research-only cellar records are not scored and do not appear here.
We do not print marketing stickers (“Excellent”, “World Class”) on the score badge. The number is enough; methodology lives next to it. Methodology lives with the reviews, not in a PDF nobody reads.
The desk
Who edits this
AFNA Wine Certified™
Founder & Editor in Chief
Karl Hill
Washington, DC
Karl Hill founded The Dry Standard to bring clarity, rigor, and trust to the nonalcoholic drinks category.
An AFNA Wine Certified™ editor, he approaches nonalcoholic wine with a wine-first perspective and the category as a sorting problem: what is it, where did it come from, how was it made, what technology or machine was used to remove the alcohol, how much alcohol remains, and does it match what the drinker is actually looking for?
The Dry Standard combines independent tasting with classification, provenance, production-method research, and evidence-backed verification to make those answers easier to find and trust.
Contact
Get in touch
Industry
For brands and industry
Brands, producers, importers, distributors, and other industry partners may submit a product for editorial consideration or inquire about collaborations. A sample does not guarantee a review. Distributors: how the catalog is useful to a sales book. Details: For Brands & Industry.
How reviews get published
Products enter a queue. They are researched, drafted, and checked against sources. A review that fails factual validation does not publish, even if the calendar says it is a publishing day.
What this is not
This is an editorial publication, not a shop. Prices and availability are independently observed and may change. Retailer listings do not imply endorsement. Reader-service exceptions and affiliate or partner purchase links are identified where applicable; they never affect scores, rankings, classification, verification, or coverage. How we handle industry forms is in the privacy policy.