Jul 28, 2026 – 5.00am″A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote Shakespeare, but then he never had to devise a marketing strategy or brief a distributor. The Bard might have hedged his words had he met the innovators behind Australia’s most confounding drinks category: grown-up, zero-alcohol beverages designed to steal wine’s spot on the dining table.The conundrum is more than a matter of branding; these are not merely de-alcoholised wines. Concocted using a range of ingredients – from freeze-dried fruits and exotic teas to obscure spices and native flora – they have the complexity and depth a vineyard can produce, without spending a second in a wine barrel.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Maxim DonniProduction editor, Life & LeisureMaxim Donni is the production editor of Life & Leisure at the Financial Review, based in Melbourne. He writes about dining, hospitality and culture, and was previously editor of Time Out and Concrete Playground.Fetching latest articles
The nameless ‘wine alternative’ feted by the world’s top chefs
A booming class of botanical drinks are being poured at a global roll call of famed restaurants, but their makers still can’t agree what to call the stuff.
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