Does wine lose its spirit when the alcohol is removed? 16 Mar, 2021 06:00 AM 8 minutes to read New York Times By: Eric Asimov Non-alcoholic wines fill a need for the sober and occasionally abstinent, and the new generation of alcohol-free wines is promising. Wine is hard to imagine without the alcohol. It's integral to its texture, flavour, complexity and, of course, the buzz. Yet interest in alcohol-free wine has grown rapidly over the past couple of years. According to Nielsen data, retail sales of non-alcoholic wines in the United States shot upward during the year ending February 20, rising 34 per cent over those 52 weeks after staying relatively stable from 2016-19. The rise was even more pronounced, 40 per cent, in the last quarter of that year, which included Dry January, a month of voluntary abstinence stoked by social media.