Billabong Red wine (De-Alcoholised)

Billabong Wines produce a red blend here that has been dealcoholised the remove the alcohol. Due to this process, the full-bodied nature of the wine is retained giving a great red wine experience without the accompanying alcohol. A well balanced Red, styled with a soft dryness and light oak character. A blend of Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon

De-alcoholised wines is truly a healthy wine because most of its alcohol has been removed by Spinning Cone Column(SCC) method. This method is used extensively to reduce the ethanol content of wines and produce low alcohol wine. This allows the winemaker to harvest the grapes at full ripeness, with all the benefits of enhanced flavour intensity, but without the often inevitable high alcohol levels and associated "hotness" in the finished wine.

Reduction of the alcohol content of a wine is accomplished by the SCC using a two-pass process. A portion of the wine to be treated is separated Made from the bulk wine and processed through the SCC twice. The first step captures all the delicate volatile aroma compounds of the wine which are then stored separately. The aroma-stripped wine is reprocessed through the SCC to remove most of the alcohol. The de-alcoholised wine and the flavour are then blended with the bulk of the wine to give a finished product at the desired ethanol content. Other methods of alcohol reduction such as evaporation or filtration cause the loss of many vital flavour compounds and require a far greater volume of wine to be processed. 

One of the critical drawbacks of the alcohol reduction process is its effect on the "mouth feel" of the wine. The challenge for winemakers is to compensate for this. In the United States, one producer has attempted to counteract this effect by further manipulating the wine by the addition of pre-prepared commercially marketed flavours to impart some palate fullness. While this has had partial success, we choose not to pursue this option in order to maintain as much of the "natural integrity" of the wine as feasible.