Walk on the mild side: why mid-strength wines are flavour of the month

“Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation,” wrote Saint Augustine, the theologian and Bishop of Hippo in his treatise On the Good of Marriage. More than 1,500 years later, a growing number of moderate drinkers are attempting to disprove his famous maxim by deliberately picking bottles with half the alcohol content of a regular tipple.

Sales of mid-strength wine have surged by 151% year on year, according to Ocado, prompting the online supermarket to more than triple its range over the past 12 months. Searches for mid-strength drinks have risen by more than 400% in the past two years, while people are increasingly buying full-strength, mid-strength and alcohol-free drinks together in the same basket. “We’re seeing people no longer view drinking as an all-or-nothing choice,” says Shauna Clark Fitzpatrick, a buying manager at Ocado Retail. “Moderation is the trend, rather than pure abstention.”

At Sainsbury’s, searches for “mid-strength white wine” are also up 100% year on year.

It has helped that producers have become much better at making lower-alcohol wines. Historically, advances have been limited because alcohol gives wine aroma, body and texture; stripping that away limits the character of the bottle.

In the past, producers have attempted to replace that character with sugar, but today, winemakers are taking several different approaches to solving the problem.

6Percent and Wednesday’s Domaine use dealcoholisation technology, beginning with conventionally made wine before removing alcohol and blending it back with full-strength wine until they reach around 6% ABV. 6Percent uses vacuum distillation; Wednesday’s Domaine has spent four years figuring out which base wines respond best to alcohol removal before mixing them back together.

Luke Hemsley, the founder of Wednesday’s Domaine, says the process has become gentler over time, helping preserve more of the wine’s character, but argues that methodology alone isn’t responsible for the rise in popularity of such wines. “It’s a combination of winemaking techniques, experience and technology,” he says. “Technology is improving all the time, but I don’t believe there’s been a significant step change that’s suddenly made this possible. Producers have become better at responding to what consumers actually want.”

Simon Stannard, director of policy at the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, says the science is evolving faster than legislation. Currently, the only dealcoholisation techniques recognised within the wine category are spinning cone columns and reverse osmosis; both require expensive pieces of equipment that only the larger producers can afford. Vacuum distillation, while increasingly used by lower-alcohol producers, sits outside those recognised methods, which means anything produced using it must instead be called a “wine-based drink”.

Other producers, such as Tom Benn, the founder of Future Château, prefer to make naturally lighter wines from the outset.

“Every [dealcoholisation] process starts by heating the wine,” he says. “Once you’ve heated wine, it’s never going to taste like wine again. I’ve never found a method of dealcoholising wine that I didn’t think ruined it.”

Instead, Benn searched for vineyard sites capable of producing naturally lighter wines, eventually settling on northern Victoria in Australia. This idea, he says, is nothing new. “Wine being 11-15%, heavy, boozy and high-calorie is only about 200 years old. For the other 8,000 years humans have been making wine, fine wine was much lighter. All we’re trying to do is bring back that old style.”

While retailers often point to gen Z’s changing relationship with alcohol, the wine producers cite alternative data.

Ocado says younger shoppers are particularly comfortable switching between full-strength, mid-strength and alcohol-free drinks. Hemsley says Wednesday’s Domaine’s biggest customers are women in their 30s and 40s balancing careers and young families, alongside men in their 50s and 60s who have enjoyed wine most evenings for decades.

Gabriella Lamb, who developed 6Percent after becoming a mother, says many of her customers are experienced wine drinkers who still love wine.

Benn was equally surprised by Future Château’s market: “I thought this would be for young people,” he says. Instead, the overwhelming majority of his customers are women aged 40-65, many of whom had stopped drinking wine altogether because it no longer agreed with them, particularly after the menopause.

As the category grows, however, so does confusion over what these products should be called. Retailers routinely market bottles at 6% or 7% ABV as “mid-strength wine”, but under UK law, inherited from the EU after Brexit, a product generally needs to contain at least 8.5% alcohol to be classified as wine, unless it falls under specific exemptions such as certain protected geographical indications.

“Strictly speaking, anything below that must be labelled a wine-based drink,” says Stannard. The EU has already introduced new legal definitions for low-alcohol and no-alcohol wine, but equivalent reforms were not completed in the UK before the 2024 general election. “It’s slightly perplexing why the government hasn’t pressed ahead,” Stannard continues.

With English Wine Week beginning this weekend, Ocado believes British producers could be uniquely positioned to benefit. “England’s cooler climate, once a disadvantage, is now an advantage,” says Fitzpatrick. “English winemakers can achieve 6% or 7% ABV naturally because the terroir yields vibrant acidity and aromatics at lower sugar levels… I’m really excited about that. English wine and moderation are two of the most exciting categories in drinks right now.”

Benn is not convinced. Having investigated producing his wines in Britain, he concluded the UK isn’t the right place. His trials yielded products with flavours more likely to be associated with unripe granny smith apples than wine.

Stannard expects greater innovation to come first in wines around 8.5-10% ABV made using traditional winemaking methods, and in the broader wine-based drinks category that might involve additional flavour profiles.

For Fitzpatrick, what’s important is a change in consumer attitudes to alcohol that may just stick. “What we’re seeing more than anything is that moderation is becoming a permanent consumer mindset.”

The Observer’s wine critic David Williams on the pick of the bunch

Torres Viña Sol 8%, Catalunya, Spain (8% ABV)

The Catalan family firm Torres is often ahead of the curve, and the reduced-alcohol version of its popular Viña Sol white is one of the best of this breed, with plenty of crisp, fresh tropical fruit salad flavour. £7.50, Sainsbury’s

Forrest The Doctors’ Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand 2025 (9.5% ABV)

While some mid-strength producers rely on extracting alcohol, the Forrests’ classic Marlborough sauvignon blanc gets its 9.5% ABV thanks to clever work in the vineyard. Properly verdant and gooseberry juicy, you’d never guess its ABV from its taste and texture. £10, Waitrose

Dauvergne et Ranvier Organic Syrah, Rhône, France 2024 (10.5% ABV)

I’ve yet to find a reduced-ABV red I like – without the body that alcohol brings they just feel too thin. But this is a great, naturally light syrah from the cool foothills of the Cévennes, violet-pretty with a peppery kick to the blackberry fruit. £11, Waitrose

Michele Chiarlo Nivole Moscato d’Asti, Piedmont, Italy 2025 (5.5% ABV)

A quintessential Italian summer wine, softly fizzy moscato d’Asti, such as this charming example from Michele Nivole, is irrepressibly full of summer meadow flowers and muscat grape flavours. Naturally sweet, it’s just about the perfect partner for strawberries. £13.90, or £12.90 as part of a mixed case of six bottles, 37.5cl, noblegreenwines.co.uk)

Schloss Lieser SL Riesling Kabinett, Mosel, Germany 2024 (8% ABV)

Another classic style made without fermenting all the sugar to dryness: gently sweet riesling kabinett, such as this exquisitely graceful expression from Schloss Lieser, is balanced with fine-wire acidity that positively dances on the tongue. £14.95, thewinesociety.com

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Photograph by Julia Nikulchenkova