# The Dry Standard

> Independent ratings, reviews, and production-method research for nonalcoholic drinks at 0.5% ABV or less. Scores from tasted glasses; facts only when sourced.
>
> Independent editorial reviews of drinks at or below 0.5% ABV, edited by Karl Hill in Washington, DC. This is the review publication at drinkdrystandard.com — not a venue guide or a social club that shares the name. English only; there are no translated editions. A public score requires a firsthand tasting; research profiles publish sourced facts without a score. Production classification, documented ABV, and producer label claims are separate facts — “alcohol-free” is not automatically a stated 0.0%. International label terms are explained at https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/alkoholfrei/, https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/sin-alcohol/, https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/alcohol-free/, and https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/nonalcoholic-labels-around-the-world/.

## Key pages

- [The Dry Standard](https://drinkdrystandard.com/): Homepage and current highlights from the cellar.
- [Methodology](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methodology/): How bottles are sourced, classified, tasted, and scored.
- [Learn](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/): Guides to labels, production methods, and choosing a bottle.
- [Best](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/): Ranked buying guides from firsthand tasted scores only.

## Learn guides

- [Alcohol-free: what the English claim means](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/alcohol-free/): Alcohol-free is a label claim, not a synonym for a measured 0.0%. US guidance reserves it for no detectable alcohol; England’s voluntary line is 0.05% ABV when alcohol was extracted.
- [Alkoholfrei: what the German label means](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/alkoholfrei/): Alkoholfrei is a German label word, not a measured 0.0%. On wine it may sit beside entalkoholisierter Wein and can reach 0.5% vol.
- [Best dealcoholized rosé](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/best-dealcoholized-rose/): Still and sparkling pink wine that had alcohol removed — ranked by tasted Dry Standard scores, not marketing zeros.
- [Best dealcoholized wines](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/best-dealcoholized-wines/): The highest scores are tasted bottles. This is the dealcoholized wine in the cellar, ranked by that score.
- [Best non-alcoholic Chardonnay](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/best-non-alcoholic-chardonnay/): The non-alcoholic Chardonnays worth buying, from more than twenty tasted here: which keep real Chardonnay character, which lean rich or fresh, and where most fall short.
- [Best nonalcoholic sparkling wine: picks by taste](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/best-sparkling-wines/): Choose a nonalcoholic sparkling wine by fruit, acidity, texture and finish. Firsthand picks for Riesling, brioche, floral rosé and herbal styles.
- [Best 0.0% wines](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/best-zero-wines/): 0.0% is a stated residual, not a synonym for nonalcoholic. These are the wines that cite it, ranked by tasted score.
- [How to buy dealcoholized wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/buying-dealcoholized-wine/): Residual sugar, vacuum stills, and the difference between a wine that lost its alcohol and a grape soda in a Burgundy bottle.
- [How to buy nonalcoholic beer](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/buying-na-beer/): Cold-filtered stout, low-fermentation IPA, and hop water are not the same shopping trip. Read the process before you trust the can.
- [How to buy nonalcoholic cider](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/buying-na-cider/): Some bottles are fermented cider with the alcohol removed. Others are juice that learned carbonation. The glass will tell you, if the label will not.
- [How to buy a nonalcoholic spirit](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/buying-na-spirits/): Dealcoholized whiskey is not a botanical tea. Ask what was in the still before the alcohol left — and whether anything was in a still at all.
- [Cerveza sin alcohol: the Spanish beer line is wider](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/cerveza-sin-alcohol/): In Spain, cerveza sin alcohol is beer under 1% vol. That is wider than this cellar. A search here still only returns beer at or below 0.5% ABV.
- [Dealcoholized beer versus beer brewed to 0.5%](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/dealcoholized-beer-vs-na-beer/): Some NA beers are full-strength brews with the alcohol filtered out. Others never get there. Both can be excellent. They are not the same process.
- [Dealcoholized is not the same as nonalcoholic](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/dealcoholized-vs-formulated/): The label 0.0% tells you almost nothing. Dealcoholized, alternative, naturally low alcohol, and hybrid are different histories.
- [Does nonalcoholic wine contain alcohol?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/does-non-alcoholic-wine-contain-alcohol/): Usually a trace. 0.0% and under 0.5% are different claims, and neither one is a chemical absolute.
- [Entalkoholisierter Wein: the German legal wine name](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/entalkoholisierter-wein/): Entalkoholisierter Wein is the German legal designation for dealcoholized wine at or below 0.5% vol. Alkoholfrei may be added; it is not the name itself.
- [How is alcohol removed from wine?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/how-alcohol-is-removed-from-wine/): The starting wine, removal technique, aroma recovery, and later adjustments all matter. A method name explains the process; it does not predict quality.
- [How clearly do nonalcoholic wine brands disclose how their wine is made?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/how-clearly-wine-brands-disclose-production/): We checked 215 nonalcoholic wines from 115 brands. Nearly half the dealcoholized wines name no removal method; a third have conflicting alcohol figures.
- [How does dealcoholization change aroma?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/how-dealcoholization-changes-aroma/): Ethanol carries smell. Taking it out can take aroma with it. Whether a process puts that aroma back is a claim about a bottle, not a feature of the category.
- [How to buy nonalcoholic red wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/how-to-buy-non-alcoholic-red-wine/): Look for tannin and a dry finish. Red is where removal most often leaves the wine cooked or sweet.
- [How to buy nonalcoholic sparkling wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/how-to-buy-non-alcoholic-sparkling-wine/): Ask where the bubbles came from. Most of these wines were dealcoholized still, then carbonated.
- [How to buy nonalcoholic white wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/how-to-buy-non-alcoholic-white-wine/): Acid has to carry whatever sugar is left. A sweet Riesling shape with no acidity is juice.
- [How we check a claim](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/how-we-check-a-claim/): What a label, producer sheet, or retailer listing can establish—and where we leave a fact undeclared.
- [Is dealcoholized wine actually wine?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/is-dealcoholized-wine-actually-wine/): It was wine, then the ethanol was removed. A tea or botanical bottle that never was wine is a different object.
- [Non-alcoholic red wine with body](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/non-alcoholic-red-wine-with-body/): Most non-alcoholic reds taste thin. These are the tasted reds with real weight or structure, why body and structure are not the same thing, and what each one gives up.
- [Nonalcoholic wine is not one thing](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/non-alcoholic-wine-is-not-one-thing/): Dealcoholized, built, hybrid, and naturally low-alcohol wines are different objects. 0.0% is not the same claim as <0.5%.
- [What nonalcoholic labels mean around the world](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/nonalcoholic-labels-around-the-world/): Sans alcool, alkoholfrei, sin alcohol, and alcohol-free do not all draw the line at the same strength. A guide to the words, what they prove, and what they do not.
- [Reverse osmosis, explained](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/reverse-osmosis-explained/): Pressure, a membrane, and a flavor fraction put back together without most of the ethanol. It is removal. It is not a synonym for filtered.
- [Sans alcool: what the French label means](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/sans-alcool/): Sans alcool may sit beside vin désalcoolisé up to 0.5% vol. It is not the legal wine name, and it is not a measured 0.0%.
- [Sin alcohol: what the Spanish label means](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/sin-alcohol/): Sin alcohol means without alcohol. On Spanish beer the legal phrase cerveza sin alcohol can reach 1% vol, wider than this cellar. The legal wine name is vino desalcoholizado.
- [Spinning Cone vs Vacuum Distillation for Nonalcoholic Wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/spinning-cone-vs-vacuum-distillation/): Spinning cone is a staged thin-film process under vacuum; vacuum distillation is the broader method. Compare the processes and our firsthand wine evidence.
- [Vin désalcoolisé: the French legal wine name](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/vin-desalcoolise/): Vin désalcoolisé is the French legal designation for wine dealcoholized to at most 0.5% vol. Sans alcool may sit beside it. Vin sans alcool is not a legal name.
- [Vino desalcoholizado: the Spanish legal wine name](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/vino-desalcoholizado/): Vino desalcoholizado is the Spanish legal designation for wine dealcoholized to at most 0.5% vol. Vino sin alcohol is shopper language, not the denomination.
- [What is a built wine?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/what-is-a-built-wine/): Why tea-based, botanical and “proxy” wines are not the same thing as dealcoholized wine.
- [Why is body so hard without alcohol?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/why-body-is-hard-without-alcohol/): Removing ethanol can change texture, aroma release, and perceived balance. Good body suits the style; sweetness and weight alone do not make a convincing wine.
- [Why does nonalcoholic beer often taste closer than nonalcoholic wine?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/why-non-alcoholic-beer-often-tastes-closer/): Bitterness, roast, and carbonation survive the loss of alcohol. Wine was using ethanol for aroma and body. This cellar's scores follow that, and they are not a law.
- [Why is nonalcoholic wine so sweet?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/why-non-alcoholic-wine-tastes-sweet/): Ethanol was doing structural work. When it leaves, the same sugar reads louder, and some producers put sugar back on purpose.
- [0.0% vs <0.5%: what's the difference?](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/zero-vs-under-half/): 0.0% is a stated residual. Under 0.5% is a ceiling. In this cellar the bands do not predict score — they answer different buyer constraints.

## Methods

- [Methods](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methods/): Named removal and fermentation techniques. A machine is a sourced fact on a bottle, not a vendor listing.
- [How alcohol is removed from wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/how-alcohol-is-removed-from-wine/): Dealcoholization as a process: vacuum distillation, spinning cone, and membranes.
- [Dealcoholized beer versus beer brewed to 0.5%](https://drinkdrystandard.com/learn/dealcoholized-beer-vs-na-beer/): Removal versus a fermentation that never climbs past the ceiling. Athletic-style secrecy stays Withheld.
- [Process withheld](https://drinkdrystandard.com/collections/process-withheld/): Tasted bottles whose producer declined to name the process. Not a sixth production type.
- [Arrested fermentation and low-alcohol brewing](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methods/arrested-fermentation/): The beer or wine is kept from making much ethanol in the first place. Useful. Not dealcoholization.
- [Membrane and cold filtration](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methods/membrane-filtration/): Alcohol leaves through a filter, not a boil. Guinness 0.0 is the version of this story most people have actually tasted.
- [Nonalcoholic fermentation](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methods/non-alcoholic-fermentation/): Fermentation designed to build flavor, acidity, aroma, or texture without conventional alcoholic fermentation. Not alcohol removal, and not arrested fermentation.
- [Osmotic distillation](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methods/osmotic-distillation/): A membrane process that pulls ethanol across a hydrophobic barrier into a stripping solution, usually at or near room temperature.
- [Reverse osmosis](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methods/reverse-osmosis/): Pressure drives the liquid through membranes that separate water and ethanol from a flavor concentrate, then the parts are reassembled without (most of) the alcohol.
- [Spinning cone column](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methods/spinning-cone/): A thin-film vacuum column used to separate aroma and ethanol in stages. Common in wine industry language; less often explained on a back label.
- [Vacuum distillation](https://drinkdrystandard.com/methods/vacuum-distillation/): Alcohol is boiled off under reduced pressure so the wine or beer never has to reach a kitchen-stove temperature.

## Best guides

- [Best Beer](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/beer/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Cider](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/cider/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Cocktails](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/cocktails/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Dealcoholized beer](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/dealcoholized-beer/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Dealcoholized wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/dealcoholized-wine/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best French wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/french-wine/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best German wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/german-wine/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Red wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/red-wine/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Rose](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/rose/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Spanish wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/spanish-wine/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Sparkling wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/sparkling-wine/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Spirits](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/spirits/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Under 20](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/under-20/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best White wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/white-wine/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Wine](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/wine/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.
- [Best Zero beer](https://drinkdrystandard.com/best/zero-beer/): Ranked from firsthand tasted scores; research profiles are not ranked.

## Machine-readable

- [Sitemap](https://drinkdrystandard.com/sitemap.xml): Canonical index of all public pages.
- [Reviews feed](https://drinkdrystandard.com/feed.xml): Atom feed of recent firsthand tasted reviews; summaries and links only.
- [JSON Schema: availability-v1.schema.json](https://drinkdrystandard.com/schema/availability-v1.schema.json): Published contract for the limited public API records.
- [JSON Schema: brand-v1.schema.json](https://drinkdrystandard.com/schema/brand-v1.schema.json): Published contract for the limited public API records.
- [JSON Schema: catalog-v1.schema.json](https://drinkdrystandard.com/schema/catalog-v1.schema.json): Published contract for the limited public API records.
- [JSON Schema: method-v1.schema.json](https://drinkdrystandard.com/schema/method-v1.schema.json): Published contract for the limited public API records.
- [JSON Schema: product-v1.schema.json](https://drinkdrystandard.com/schema/product-v1.schema.json): Published contract for the limited public API records.
- [Brands API](https://drinkdrystandard.com/api/v1/brands/): Read-only brand index. Bulk catalog downloads are not public.
- [Methods API](https://drinkdrystandard.com/api/v1/methods/): Read-only production-method index.

## Reuse

Link to the page you cite; do not treat this index as a data export. Comprehensive exports are supplied manually under agreed scope, attribution, and reuse terms — ask through https://drinkdrystandard.com/industry/partnerships/. Corrections: https://drinkdrystandard.com/industry/correction/.