Josh Cellars, the biggest-selling premium brand in the US, with sales of around 75m bottles at over $10, has just announced the launch of an Italian, ‘Prosecco-style’ zero-alcohol wine. This will join Freixenet’s 0.0, Torres’s Natureao and UK-based startup Noughty’s whites and rosés in the growing AF sparkling sector.
The slightly off-dry style of the new sparkling product follows in the heels of other recently-created AF products like Nozeco from France, Della Vite, Scavi & Ray and examples from La Gioiosa and Bottega, two major producers of classic Prosecco.
Some in North East Italy fear that these products - like the kegged sparkling Italian wine sold on draft in on-trade outlets - will harm Prosecco's reputation. Others may feel that it is already too late to be expressing these concerns.
In 2023, according to Euromonitor, sales of zero-alcohol beverages hit $20bn after a year of 20% growth.
Josh Cellars was launched in 2007 by Joseph Carr who sold the first vintage out of the back of his truck. Four years later, when sales had hit around 25,000 cases, the brand was bought by Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, the company that had previously been successful with Georges Duboeuf and Yellow Tail. In 2023, sales grew to 6.2m 9-litre cases - 14% up on 2022.
