This 0% Wine Doesn’t Suck (Seriously)

• The real people buying non-alc wine (spoiler: it’s not just sober Gen Zs)

• A giveaway to supercharge your dry bar 💥

• And dry & high economy headlines from Nashville to Newfoundland

So whether you’re here for the flavour, the function, or the free stuff — crack open a bottle of whatever makes you feel good and let’s get into it.

How to Sell Wine Without the Booze

Turns out you can disrupt a 9,000-year-old industry with a cork, a clever idea, and just enough ginger and elderflower.

When Luke Hemsley founded Wednesdays Domaine in 2022, he wasn’t trying to create “just another” non-alcoholic wine. He was trying to fix what he calls the worst-performing corner of the alcohol-free drinks aisle.

Because here’s the ugly truth: while NA beer is having its cool-kid moment and NA spirits are pulling up stools in fancy cocktail bars, NA wine has been… well, the wallflower. Underloved. Overly sweet. Marketed like a “healthy choice” instead of something you actually want to drink.

And for Luke, that was a problem worth solving.

The Midweek Epiphany

Like so many good ideas, Wednesday’s Domain started during the pandemic.

Evenings at home meant a glass of wine, a beer, or a G&T almost every night. Luke wasn’t waking up hungover, but he was “a little dusty”, not quite firing on all cylinders.

So he went looking for alcohol-free alternatives. Beer? Great! Spirits? Not bad. Wine? Catastrophic.

That’s when the founder’s brain switched on. He wanted to build a physical product with a delightful customer experience, something you’d share, savour, and tell friends about.

And so Wednesday’s Domaine was born: a premium midweek wine alternative for food and drink lovers. Not anti-booze. Just pro-choice for those nights you want the ritual without the Thursday regret.

The Playbook for Wine Without the Booze

NA wine isn’t easy to make well. In fact, Luke had a blunt question for himself in the early days: If so many others have failed, why do we think we can do better?

His answer has become Wednesday’s Domaine’s competitive edge. It comes down to three pillars:

1. Start with quality base wines

   • Most base wines are good enough to drink in alcoholic form.

   • No cutting corners on grape quality just because it’s “only” NA.

2. Use the best de-alcoholisation tech available

   • Wednesday’s Domaine partners with market leaders in preserving sensory qualities after removing alcohol.

   • The goal: maintain aroma, mouthfeel, and flavour complexity.

3. Blend for depth and body

   • Post-dealcoholisation, Luke adds subtle elements like lemon, ginger, elderflower, and grape must.

   • These give NA wine the length, texture, and weight that drinkers expect from the real thing.

It’s not about being “good for a non-alcoholic wine.” It’s about being a good wine, period.

But who’s actually drinking this?

Here’s where it gets interesting, and where the NA wine industry might be missing a trick.

Ask a drinks marketer who the NA wine buyer is, and they’ll say:

• Pregnant women

• People with medical or religious reasons

• Gen Z “sober curious” consumers

In reality?

Luke’s biggest surprise is the older male red wine drinker. The Vignette, which is Wednesday’s Domaine’s heavier red, has been winning over a surprisingly traditional crowd.

The sweet spot customer? Wine lovers who know a bit (grape varieties, regional differences) but aren’t “wine snobs.” They appreciate flavour nuance without being rigid about what a wine must be.

And in the trade, sommeliers and buyers (people who taste broadly) are often more open-minded than hardcore connoisseurs.

Creativity beyond the glass

For NA wine to grow, it needs more than a “straight swap” for its alcoholic counterpart. It needs new contexts, new audiences, and a broader story.

Wednesday’s Domaine is leaning into both. In the restaurant world, their wines aren’t just poured, they’re reimagined. At Barrafina, the acclaimed Spanish restaurant group, the lighter red Sanguine anchors a sangria that sells like hot cakes. It’s a reminder that NA wine can be an ingredient worth celebrating, not just a compromise in the glass.

Outside hospitality, Luke’s focus is on expanding the picture of who actually drinks this stuff. Spoiler: it’s not just the “cool” 20-something abstainer in marketing decks. Real customers are often older, moderating for health or lifestyle reasons. They’re tired parents. They’re professionals who still want a glass at dinner without sacrificing tomorrow’s meeting.

Platforms like LinkedIn let the brand show these stories authentically — a sangria at a bustling bar, a dad making pasta at home with a glass of Vignette, a Friday lunch meeting where nobody needs a nap afterwards. It’s not about replacing wine; it’s about reframing when and how we enjoy it.

The Brutal Bits

Building a premium NA wine brand isn’t just about flavour and branding. It’s like building a wine brand on hard mode. Here’s why:

Product: Getting NA wine right, and consistent, oh, and at scale is incredibly hard. Luke believes we’re still in the “foothills” of NA wine quality. The next phase? Sub-category excellence (e.g., a great NA Sauvignon Blanc, not just “good NA white wine”).

Distribution: With NA wine making up a sliver of total sales, buyers are skeptical. It takes persistence (and sometimes 17 follow-up emails) to get listings.

Brand: The starting point is often “I’ve tried NA wine and it’s all terrible.” That perception is a high wall to climb.

Direct-to-Consumer Power

Roughly half of Wednesday’s Domaine’s sales are online. The rest split between retail and on-trade (restaurants, hotels).

Luke loves DTC for two reasons:

1. Relationship building — telling the brand story in their own voice.

2. Serving the underserved — premium NA wine buyers often can’t find quality options in supermarkets.

Free next-day delivery helps close the gap between curiosity and conversion.

The Final Pour

For Luke, the real prize isn’t a single product or flavour profile. It’s normalisation. And in a world where NA, mid-strength, and functional drinks aren’t “alternatives” but just part of the drinking landscape. You show up to a pub or dinner party with a 0% bottle and the conversation is about taste, origin, and pairing, not the ABV on the label.

Making wine without booze isn’t about subtraction. It’s about adding enough flavour, ritual, and story to make you forget the ethanol was ever there. Wednesday’s Domaine’s formula is simple: start with quality, use the best tech, rebuild for complexity, and serve it in the places where people already love wine.

The lesson for the wider dry economy? Stop selling the absence of alcohol. Start selling the presence of pleasure.

Or, as one customer put it:

Win the Ultimate Alcohol-Free Drinks Bundle

We’ve teamed up with three heavy hitters in the dry economy to give TWO lucky readers a fridge full of flavour. No labels, no lectures, just seriously good booze-free bevs.

What you could win:

• 🍸 Three Spirit — Starter Pack
  Functional, plant-powered elixirs to lift, calm, or connect.

• 🍺 Nu Wave — 12-pack Lager + 12-pack Hazy Pale
  Craft beer energy, zero next-day regret.

• 🌊 Firebrand Brewing — 1x case Shorebreak + 1x case Little Wave
  Cornish-born, crushable, humble-roots craft.

How to enter:
Pop your details in here and you’re in. Winners picked at random and announced via email.

Deadline: 11:59PM BST, 30th September 2025
UK only, 18+. No purchase necessary. T&Cs apply.

Two winners. One entry. Your dry bar’s about to glow up.

Enter now

How to Sell a Drink to Someone Who’s Not Drinking

Event Alert: Cracking Gen Z – How Drinks Brands Can Win the Next Generation
🗓️ Monday, Sept 1, 2025 | 1:00–2:30pm BST | Zoom

Let’s be honest: the rules of the drinks game are toast. Gen Z isn’t sipping the Kool-Aid (or your IPA). They’re trading booze for botanicals, skipping hangovers for healing, and ghosting brands that don’t speak their vibe.

That’s where Daniel Rowntree comes in.

Founder of High & Dry (yes, that’s us) and certified trailblazer of the dry economy, Daniel’s hitting the digital stage with Wonderworks for their next WonderNETwork webinar – a deep dive into how drinks brands can actually connect with the most brand-savvy, wellness-obsessed, algorithm-breaking generation to ever ghost an email.

💬 He’ll be joined by heavy-hitters from Heineken, Whitebox Cocktails, Sober Girl Society, and C&C Group to decode:

• Why Gen Z loves RTDs (and what that even stands for)

• How TikTok is making or breaking your drinks brand

• What happens when you stop marketing at young people and start building with them

• And yeah, what the heck “zebra striping” is (spoiler: it’s a drinking trend, not a fashion choice)

If you're a brand leader still clinging to “millennial pink” and loyalty programs, this one’s your wake-up call. Join us for real talk, future-proof insights, and a few home truths from a panel that knows what time it is.

🔗 Register Here

P.S. There may be zero alcohol involved, but the takes will be strong.

Snippets - Dry

Freshers are trading cheap shots for cold Lucky Saints as university life ditches the booze-soaked stereotype. Read more.

Arkay Beverages is rolling out its chilli-kick, capsaicin-based zero-proof spirits to 35+ countries. Translation: you can now burn your throat on fake whisky almost anywhere in the world. Read more.

Move over Master of Wine — now there’s AFNA Wine Certified™, the world’s first non-alcoholic sommelier programme. Finally, a qualification for swirling, sniffing and confidently saying, “nope, still sober.” Read more.

Nashville’s Broadway is getting a sober saloon. Country star Ashley McBryde is opening Redemption Bar, serving zero-proof cocktails alongside the boozy stuff. Honky-tonk without the hangover. Read more.

Alcohol is no longer the golden goose for restaurants, with Gen Z choosing mocktails over Merlot. Read more.

Snippets - High

Microdosing mushrooms might sound hip, but poison-control hotlines are buzzing thanks to dodgy blends and toxic lookalikes. Less “expand your mind,” more “expand your medical bill.” Read more.

Those private cannabis clinics handing out weed for anxiety may be fueling paranoia, not fixing it. Read more.

Trump’s flirting with reclassifying weed from Schedule I to III—because apparently, the “War on Drugs” is bad for business. Read more.

Cannabis isn’t a gateway drug—it’s a gateway to growing your own tomatoes (and maybe a few zucchinis). Read more.

Psychedelic sessions are less Burning Man, more hangout with friends—think Netflix and neuroplasticity. Read more.

Until next time!

Whether you’re in it for the flavour, the focus, or the full eight hours of sleep, one thing’s clear: the booze-free life isn’t just having a moment, it’s building momentum.

So here’s your monthly reminder:

📦 Enter the giveaway 
📲 Follow us on the ‘gram’
🖥️ Join the webinar
🍷 Reconsider that sad NA wine gathering dust on the bottom shelf, there’s better out there

Until next time, keep sipping with intention, living without compromise, and maybe… converting one red wine snob at a time.

Stay sharp, stay dry. The High & Dry Team

P.S. Got thoughts, hot tips, or an NA drink you think we need to try? Hit reply — we read every email.