The hosts had just heard that a major brewer expects half its beer sales to be alcohol-free in future. Richards argues that traditional producers who say non-alcoholic wine is not wine are making a strategic mistake.
Yeah, and I think this is a really good point. You know, you know how to set me off. Rodolph mentioned that Asahi think half of their beer sales in the future may be alcohol-free. Half.
Wow.
Do the beer industry. Do the beer industry say non-alcoholic beer isn't beer? You know, I mean, that would be commercial suicide. So for wine people to say that non-alcoholic wine isn't wine is utter madness in my view. Wine can and should be a broad church. I think drinkers are grown up enough to make the distinction, even when they're at the younger end of the spectrum like Gen Z. It's a potential massive win-win.
And I guess it's no surprise that wine lovers like us, if we want to have a night off or are driving or just want to moderate on a big night out, we'd ideally want something that comes close to our favourite drink, which is wine.
And that's exactly what Will says about how the market works right now. I see it being a really important part of our weekly basket. Monday to Friday, I love a glass of wine, but I don't want the alcohol. And then Saturday, Sunday, start with non-alcoholic and then move to alcoholic and finish with…
So bookending and zebra striping, this is the new lingo, the new reality. And I personally particularly like the idea of bookending because I tend to drink the first few glasses way too fast, as you know, which means it goes straight to my head. And then I tend to want to stop drinking before…