DOs are also making moves. According to the technical secretary of DO Catalunya, Anton Castellà, since 2016 they have already protected wines with a minimum of 4.5% alcohol, as allowed by the EU to DOs if they approved it, but no winery has yet done so, because the regulation leads to leaving a large amount of residual sugar. From the next harvest in 2026, Castellà informs ARA that the DO expects to make effective the withdrawal of this condition. By the end of June, he adds, they also plan to approve the protection of partially de-alcoholized wines with an alcohol content above 0.5% and below 9%, which he hopes to apply from the 2027 harvest and which is already a reality in the DO Cariñena in Aragon. Even the traditional DOQ Rioja has decided to lower the alcohol content of white and rosé wines to a minimum of 9% and reds to 10%.With declining consumption, there is no alternative, according to Castellà: "Either we find a way out for the current vineyard, diversifying the product, or the sector will be greatly reduced." For the head of the viticulture service of the Catalan Institute of Wine and Cava (Incavi), Xóan Elorduy, all this responds to market evolution, and will be further favored by the so-called wine package approved by the EU to mitigate the sector's crisis. Wine will also be designated as 0.0 (with an alcohol content below 0.05%), "alcohol-free" (below 0.5%), and "reduced alcohol" (above 0.5% and at least 30% lower than the minimum alcohol content of products in its category before de-alcoholization), changes that will come into effect on September 19, 2027.
The heat rises and the wine lowers the alcohol: how is this possible?
The wineries manage to lower the alcoholic degree of wine, even though the increasing heatwaves that the vineyard endures can raise it
With wine, the theory is clear: the hotter it gets, the more sugars the grapes can accumulate. Given that during fermentation these sugars will end up being transformed into alcohol, if it has been a year of great heatwaves, presumably the alcoholic strength of the wine will also be high. However, very alcoholic wines are not to everyone's taste, and even less so now that the heat is arriving. Faced with this, wineries are devising ways to also offer wines that significantly reduce alcohol, regardless of whether the vineyard has had to endure very high temperatures. Several Catalan wineries are already making wines or drinks that can be assimilated to wine, almost all of them white, ranging between 6% and 9.5% alcohol. They are an intermediate point between Mediterranean wines, with an alcohol content that can reach 15%-16%, and de-alcoholized wines, which become 0.0 if all the alcohol is removed. The aim is to respond to the trend of drinking less without giving up aroma and taste, which can diminish greatly in the processes to transform them into 0.0, and at the same time offer lower-alcohol wines without so much technological intervention.
Apparently, the bottles of these wines are like those of any other, so to distinguish them one must look for the alcoholic content on the label or some other clue, like the one offered by the latest Catalan wine with alcohol in check that has come onto the market. It is a macabeu from 2025 with 8% alcohol from the Art Laietà winery. It is defined as a low-grade fermented beverage, but with the new European regulations it has every chance of ending up being called wine. According to Mireia Pujol-Busquets, second generation of the winery, they even aspire for the designation of origin that corresponds to them, the DO Alella, to accept low-grade wines like this one.Innovate, but like old wines
Making a wine with only 8% alcohol has no secret, even though it is in the torrid Mediterranean, assures Pujol-Busquets: "Simply, we harvest earlier and do quite a bit of batonnage". The grapes are harvested greener and, during production, the wine is stirred frequently so that the lees, the remains of the yeasts that have activated fermentation, can contribute volume to the final production, thus avoiding that with the reduction of alcohol it gives the impression that the wine has lost body. He says that other wineries achieve this by adding sugar – or bubbles – but he has not wanted to follow this path. The result, a fresh wine intended to be drunk young now in the summer. "It's a picnic wine, to take to a group lunch, to share and as an aperitif," says Pujol-Busquets.
With only a little more alcohol, other wineries have managed to make more complex wines that, when paired with food, can compete with the most alcoholic ones. The pioneers in making them should be sought in Terra Alta. The Cooperativa de Corbera d'Ebre launched the Nakens wine at the beginning of 2025, which has now released the 2025 vintage, and the Jordi Miró winery in the same municipality launched a renewed version of the Sèrie 6 wine, from 2020, in parallel, both made from parellada with 9% alcohol and under the DO Terra Alta. "Making them has nothing to do with trends or fads – says the winemaker Andrea Miró – but with defending an indigenous variety of Catalonia, like parellada, which, at least in Terra Alta, has not been given much attention".As his father, Jordi Miró, recounts, in order to comply with regulations and for the wine to reach the minimum alcohol content required by the DO, the grapes had to be overripe. However, if harvested when most convenient, "naturally low-alcohol wines without technological intervention" are achieved, because it is a variety very well adapted to the area, which ripens slowly and concentrates little sugar, and therefore, can lead to wines with low alcohol. In his opinion, with parellada, Catalonia has "a rough diamond," and he believes its moment has come, because it allows for wines with 8% alcohol or less to be made. For this reason, they ask the DO Terra Alta to protect these wines permanently, and not just from some harvests as has been the case until now.For Credo (DO Penedès), the still wine winery of Recaredo (Corpinnat), preventing the alcoholic degree from rising is part of its DNA. Their Volaina wines, also made from Parellada, and Mística & Rústica, from Xarel·lo, have an alcohol content of 9.5%. The winemaker Ton Mata says that while Volaina was born to be low in alcohol, Mística & Rústica is part of his experimentation with Xarel·lo and is not within the DO. It originates from high-altitude vineyards in Penedès (450 meters) and is worked with amphora and skins. "It's much more than a 9.5% wine," he emphasizes. And, like the Sèrie 6 terraltenc from the Jordi Miró winery – also from 2020 – they demonstrate how well these wines age over the years. Credo's wines are the result of years of studying the relationship between alcoholic degree and acidity with Recaredo's sparkling wines, and they seek to moderate alcohol while offering high acidity, but "lively, not vegetal or aggressive," Mata details.Alternative: mix with alcohol and without
To reduce alcohol, some also opt to mix de-alcoholized wine with traditional wine, currently outside of DO. Terra Remota (DO Empordà) launched the Seis wine last summer, a white grenache with 6% alcohol. The winery's co-founder, Marc Bournazeau, emphasizes that the tests they have done with 0.0 have "not yielded the desired quality," which is why they have opted to vinify a white grenache with 13% alcohol, partially de-alcoholize it to 5%, and then add a small portion of traditional wine, reaching 6%. They produced Seis wine in 2024 and 2025, but this year they do not plan to make it, because "the market is not growing as quickly" as they had imagined, although he is convinced that they must persevere because it will expand.Only for international markets, Família Torres –a pioneering winery with 0.0– has also joined the production of low-alcohol wines. Within the Sangre de Toro range, they have a white and a red with 8% alcohol, made with "Mediterranean grapes" –in the white, the presence of a very aromatic variety is perceived–, and which have undergone a partial dealcoholization process "that fully preserves the taste and aroma of the original wines", according to winery sources. They add that they began to be marketed in 2024 in Finland and that currently they are also found in other international markets. This year's new product from Torres aimed at reducing alcohol is the launch of Viña Sol Fruity Red, made from Garnacha and Ull de Llebre, a traditional red with 11% alcohol content to be served chilled. In this case, it is also not sold in Spain.