While on one end historians believed that lower-alcohol wines meant low quality, the balance has begun to shift towards practicality, where the working class men who wouldn’t otherwise be able to enjoy a work day drink due to high alcohol levels are now beholding the pillar of this gap, and are treasuring this rare phenomenon which almost seems like a personal present to them. These “lighter wines” are becoming a fast moving good, since they don’t give as much of a hangover any more, and just instigate the right levels of buzz that one needs, enough to enjoy and not intoxicate.

New Zealand in the year 2014 invested $17-million into a seven-year programme wherein 18 companies participated to create “lighter-in-alcohol wines”. These companies included some of the biggest names of the industry like Accolade Wines and Allan Scott Wines. You may refer to the related links below to find the complete list.

This has been by far the largest wine research initiative pulled off by the New Zealand wine industry, wherein the resultant wines contain less than 10% alcohol. The effects of this have already been evident in Australia, with the working class Aussies enjoying the recently re-discovered wine, it seems there is no stopping for “light wines” to soon be visible in other parts of the world.

Source credit: NZ Wine