It’s been a huge year for non-alcoholic* drinks. Get to know eight of the best.
Right, we’re calling it – 2022 was The Year of the Non-Alcoholic Drink. That may not be an actual thing, but we did see zero%* alcohol products go from niche curiosity to mass popularity – and not just among non-drinkers, either. There’s now barely a quality venue without a dedicated list of fancy boozeless drinks, as well as bars that only serve non-alcoholic* drinks. And here at Dan Murphy’s, we even had our own pop-up alcohol-free bar and threw a zero%* alcohol party mid-year, too.
There’s been a recent explosion of zero%* alcohol drinks – from beer and wine to spirits and pre-batched cocktails – and, happily, they’ve also gone from a little bit meh to downright delicious. To help you navigate the increasing options, we round up the best zero%* drinks that either launched this year or hit peak popularity – just in time to see you through the season’s biggest events.
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Wine
Initially a moderate-alcohol range of wines, the Tread Softly label has recently launched some zero%* releases, including the Everything Except Rosé Zero. It’s proven a hit, which has a lot to do with it tasting like the real deal, as well as its producers planting a tree for every case sold – they’ve now ticked over one million. This rosé is made with quality grapes and uses the ultra-membrane method to create a vibrant wine with ripe red berry flavours and cleansing acidity.
New Zealand’s Marlborough is synonymous with sauvignon blanc, thanks to this region’s producers putting their bright, zesty stamp on the variety and sending it out into the world. The Marlborough-made Today for Tomorrow Zero Alcohol Sauvignon therefore has a solid home-ground advantage and showcases the region’s hallmark traits – it’s light and crisp, with fresh tropical notes, and citrus aromas and flavours. It’s one of several new releases that shows quality is reaching new heights across zero%* alcohol products – and people are snapping it up.
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Beer
The beer space has been one of the more successful when it comes to zero%* alcohol drinks, and the strikingly packaged Hey Days Zero Alcohol is one of the year’s top performers. We put this down to the Hey Days style being loaded with flavour and complexity – not always an easy thing for a non-alcoholic* drink. Slightly hazy, with a light malt aroma and notes of pine and citrus, this XPA has delicate tropical flavours, a medium hop bitterness and rounded mouthfeel.
The Heaps Normal Quiet XPA sneaks onto this list because, while it launched in 2020, it stormed ahead in the popularity stakes this year. Glowing reviews from its ever-growing list of fans suggest it could easily be confused for a traditional beer, and many declare it the best of its kind. That all comes down to its tropical and citrus aromas, unmistakably beer-like finish, balanced bitterness and subtle malt sweetness. It’s no wonder you’ll now find this on almost every good drinks list in the country.
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Spirits
You can thank the good folk at Victorian distillery Four Pillars for giving their cult-favourite Bloody Shiraz Gin a zero%* spin. How did they do it? We’re not sure, but we do know they took an alcohol-free base of concentrated shiraz and gave it some complexity by adding many of their go-to botanicals, including Tasmanian pepperberry leaf and citrus. The Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Bandwagon Non-Alcoholic was the first coloured zero%* gin to hit the market, and it’s an ideal foundation for all your favourite gin-based drinks.
When a huge brand like Gordon’s joins the zero%* market, you know these drinks are here to stay. You can also assume it’s going to taste good and, sure enough, the Gordon’s Alcohol-Free 0.0% has been another big-seller over the past year. It’s also drawn reviews of seriously high praise from Dan's customers. Expect all the same bold, juniper-led characters from the traditional Gordon’s Gin, making this a brilliant alcohol-free alternative for countless innovative mixed drinks.
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Pre-batched cocktails
Monday Distillery has fast found a following for its pre-batched mixed drinks, created to offer an alternative to the usual sickly sweet or boring alcohol-free offerings. With its pretty packaging, the Monday Distillery Classic Gin & Tonic is a 300mL non-alcoholic*, sugar-free G&T that combines botanicals with rosemary, sea salt and more. It helps that co-founder Sam Manning has a background in botanicals and beverages, and people are loving the results, as well as the fact they’re Aussie – from Victoria’s Geelong.
8. A true trailblazer
In what’s surely one of the drinks world’s most impressive – and rapid – success stories, Lyre’s was founded just three years ago in the UK, and its non-alcoholic* spirits are now available in well over 60 countries. The company was established to replicate the world’s top spirits in a non-alcoholic* format, and the Lyre’s Amalfi Spritz achieves that mission with its fresh take on the Aperol Spritz. In a 250mL can, this spritzy refresher has bright orange, rhubarb and elderflower flavours, and finishes dry.
* In this article, “Non-alcoholic*” and “Zero%*” mean the product contains not more than 0.5% ALC/VOL
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