Nonalcoholic wine is not one thing

The short answer

Some bottles started as wine and had the ethanol taken out. Some were constructed from tea, fruit, verjus, or botanicals to occupy the wine occasion. Some mix the two. A few finish at or below 0.5% ABV without a separate removal step. Production type answers how the drink became nonalcoholic.

• Production type answers how the drink became nonalcoholic.
• Built wine is a subtype of Alternative, not a sixth production type.
• 0.0% and <0.5% are different alcohol claims.

How it became nonalcoholic

Dealcoholized

Started as an alcoholic liquid; alcohol was then removed.

Alternative

Built as a nonalcoholic analogue from the start. Built wine is one subtype of Alternative.

Naturally low alcohol

Finishes at ≤0.5% ABV without a separate removal step.

Hybrid

Combines production approaches or dealcoholized material with other defining ingredients.

Unclassified: citable sources do not establish the production story. Verified is a separate field: it records whether a source supports the classification.

Production type answers how the drink became nonalcoholic.

Construction answers what kind of alternative it is — built wine, sparkling tea, botanical wine alternative. It is a subtype of Alternative, not a sixth production type. Tea is one possible base. It is not the category.

See What is a built wine? and Dealcoholized is not the same as nonalcoholic.

0.0% is not <0.5%

Those are different claims.

• 0.0% is a stated residual, or a rounding of a residual the producer treats as zero.
• <0.5% is a ceiling. The bottle may sit anywhere under the legal NA line.
• Undeclared means we have no citable number.

We do not collapse 0.33% into <0.5%, or <0.5% into 0.0%. The longer notes are Does nonalcoholic wine contain alcohol? and 0.0% vs <0.5%: what’s the difference?

Removal is a named machine, or it is undeclared

When a producer names the equipment, we print it: vacuum distillation, spinning cone column, reverse osmosis, membrane or cold filtration, osmotic distillation, or another documented process.

When they confirm removal and stay silent on the machine, the public line is Undeclared. That is not a method. Alternatives that were never alcoholic use not applicable. The machines are in How is alcohol removed from wine?. How a source earns a fact is How The Dry Standard checks a claim.

How to use the cellar

If you want traditional wine with the alcohol removed, start with dealcoholized wines or the Finder question for that experience.

If you want a constructed bottle with its own flavor profile, that is Alternative — and, when we have a sourced construction, Alternative · Built wine.

If you want the strongest documentation, sort Finder by Strongest evidence.

The number on a tasted bottle is a quality score. Facts may be researched. Scores are tasted.

The Dry List is a monthly note: three bottles, one verified claim, and one worth buying. Get the monthly list.