What 0.5% Actually Means

If you’ve spent any time looking at NoLo drinks, you’ve met a wall of numbers and words that seem to mean the same thing but don’t. Alcohol-free. Non-alcoholic. Dealcoholized. 0.0%. 0.5%.

Here’s what they actually mean, and why we’ve chosen to be specific rather than vague.

The number

EPIK wines contain 0.5% alcohol by volume or less.

That’s not zero. We’re not going to pretend it is.

To put it in proportion: a standard glass of wine is around 12–14% ABV. At 0.5%, you’d need to drink roughly twenty-five glasses of ours to take in the alcohol of a single glass of conventional wine — and you’d have hit your physical limit long before your bloodstream noticed anything, because the body metabolises alcohol at that trace level faster than you could possibly consume it.

Where else 0.5% shows up

Trace alcohol is a normal part of eating. Fermentation happens constantly, in ordinary food, without anyone intending it.

• A ripe banana can reach around 0.5% ABV
• Rye bread commonly sits near 0.3%
• Some fruit juices reach 0.5% simply from sitting in the bottle
• Kefir, kombucha and various fermented foods land in similar territory

None of these are considered alcoholic drinks. That’s the context in which the 0.5% threshold was set.

Why the words are so confusing

This is where it gets genuinely messy, and it’s worth understanding because the labels you see on shelves aren’t consistent.

In Canada, the terms are held to different thresholds:

• “Alcohol-free” and “non-alcoholic” — reserved for beverages at 0.05% ABV or below
• “Dealcoholized” — for products reduced to below 1.1% ABV

Which leaves a gap. A drink at 0.5% — the international convention for this category, used across most of the world — has no simple consumer-friendly word available to it in Canada. Industry bodies have petitioned to change this, and it may well change.

In the meantime, plenty of products on Canadian shelves at 0.5% are labelled “non-alcoholic.” We’ve chosen not to. We’d rather give you the number and let you decide what it means for you.

How the alcohol is removed

Ours is real wine first.

Grapes are grown, pressed and fermented conventionally — which matters, because fermentation is where wine gets most of its aromatic complexity. The alcohol is removed afterwards, at low temperature and under vacuum, so the volatile compounds that carry aroma and flavour survive a process that would otherwise cook them off.

This is why dealcoholized wine tastes like wine and grape juice doesn’t. The difference isn’t the absence of alcohol. It’s the presence of everything fermentation created.

Removing alcohol also removes body and some perceived sweetness, which is why the craft is in what happens next — rebalancing so the result tastes composed rather than hollowed out.

Who should think twice

We’d rather say this plainly than bury it.

If you’re in recovery from alcohol dependence, products at 0.5% are genuinely contested. Some people find them a useful part of social life. Others find that the taste, ritual and context act as a trigger, and many treatment professionals advise avoiding them for that reason. This is a real disagreement among people who know far more about it than we do, and it isn’t ours to resolve. If it applies to you, please make that decision with someone qualified — not with a wine brand’s website.

If you avoid alcohol for religious reasons, 0.5% may or may not fall within your practice. Guidance varies between traditions and between authorities within them. We give you the number so you can ask the right question of the right person.

If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, speak with your healthcare provider. We’re not qualified to advise, and we won’t pretend otherwise.

If you’re taking medication that interacts with alcohol, ask your pharmacist.

Why we lead with the number

Because it’s the only part of this that isn’t open to interpretation.

Words in this category have been stretched until they’ve stopped being useful. “Alcohol-free” on a bottle that isn’t. “Non-alcoholic” meaning different things in different countries. The number doesn’t move.

We think you can handle a number. Most of the confusion in this category comes from brands assuming otherwise.

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EPIK wines are dealcoholized, at 0.5% alc./vol. or less. Explore the collection.