Are your wines really non-alcoholic?
Yes. All the wines and beverages that we carry contain at most 0.5% alcohol/volume. In fact, most of our products have less than 0.05% alcohol/volume. The wines are first produced as regular alcoholic wines and at the end of the production process the alcohol is removed by different processes (depending on the winery) resulting in an alcohol-free product that keeps all the complexity and flavor that we expect from wine.
Who is suited to drink your products?
Since all our products contain at most 0.5% alcohol, there is no risk for anyone who wants to enjoy our beverages. Whether you have health issues, want to stop consuming alcohol, want to throw a kid-friendly party, or are pregnant, fear not, because our alcohol-free products are safe for all ages.
Are your wines safe for pregnant and nursing women?
Yes. All our products contain at most 0.5% alcohol volume. Our non-alcoholic wines can be enjoyed by pregnant and nursing women without fear of harming the baby.
What’s the difference between alcohol-free, non-alcoholic and dealcoholized?
All BeClink products meet U.S. government standards for non-alcoholic and dealcoholized beverages. For your reference, here are some definitions of terms. However, on the BeClink website, we use the terms non-alcoholic, alcohol-free, and dealcoholized interchangeably. Every non-alcoholic beverage we carry contains at most 0.5% alcohol by volume.
Alcohol-Free
Contains absolutely zero (0.00%) alcohol by volume. Alcohol-free beverages are produced without any form of fermentation (or brewing). Often have preservatives added prior to bottling to ensure fermentation does not occur once stored.
Non-Alcoholic
The drink contains 0.5% or less alcohol by volume. Non-alcoholic beverages generally undergo some form of fermentation, however the alcohol content is kept at 0.5% or lower by either: a) halting the fermentation process early; b) mixing unfermented drink with fermented drink to the appropriate proportion; or c) removing any excess alcohol through a process known as dealcoholization.
Anything that can ferment produces alcohol as it ripens, and therefore a ripe grape, for instance, will contain alcohol. Some fresh orange and tomato juices are above the US 'non-alcoholic' limit of 0.5% alc/vol, as are some yogurts and rye bread! An overripe banana can contain 1% alcohol and malt vinegar that you put on your salad is 0.2% alc/vol. Alcohol is also naturally created within the human body as part of the digestive process.
De-Alcoholized
De-alcoholized beverages are fermented (such as when making wines) but have most of the alcohol removed prior to being pasteurized and bottled. De-alcoholized beverages generally have the same or similar depth and complexity of taste that fermented (brewed) drinks have, yet with very low alcohol content.
How is the alcohol removed?
Alcohol is removed in the production stage using one of three different processes at cool temperatures to avoid damaging the wines. All the wines are ordinary alcoholic wines up to this point, so all the original characteristics are retained.
Steam Vacuum - The vaporization temperature of alcohol is lower than that of other liquids so, under normal circumstances, it would be necessary to boil wine at high temperatures to steam off the alcohol so damaging the delicate flavors. This process is done in a vacuum where vaporization can be achieved at much lower temperatures. The wine therefore looses its alcohol but retains the characteristics and flavors that would be lost with normal boiling.
Reverse Osmosis - forces the wine through a membrane (filter) to separate the alcohol from the rest of the wine.
Centrifugal Force - is used in some de-alcoholized wines to 'throw' the alcohol away from the wine through filters. This has to be repeated many times to reduce the alcohol molecules.
Halted Fermentation - This system is more commonly used in beers. The mash is mixed and left to brew. The process is halted at the point just before the product reaches an alcoholic content of more than 0.0%.
What is Halal?
Most of the wines that we sell are Halal certified. To see a list of our Halal Certified wines, click here. But what does Halal Certified mean?
The word ‘Halal’ (حلال) is an Arabic word which literally means permissible. And in translation it is usually used as lawful/allowed/acceptable and it’s a term which is applied to all aspects of life and covers not only food and drink, but also all matters of daily life.
When used in relation to food or drink, it means that the food/drink is lawful, allowed or permissible for Muslims, which guarantees to consumers that the wine contains no forbidden components, like alcohol.
All Halal certified wines contain 0.0% alcohol by volume.
Halal certificates are issued, for a fee, by a certifying body. For our wines, the organization is The Halal Institute.
Where do you deliver to?
We only deliver our products within the U.S.A. territory and Canada.
What forms of payment do you accept?
We accept credit/debit cards, Paypal payments and Amazon payments.
Is non-alcoholic wine healthier than regular wine?
Based on the researchers led by Gemma Chiva-Blanch of the University of Barcelona, yes.
METHODOLOGY: Researchers at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona instructed 67 men to drink either 10 ounces of red wine, 10 ounces of non-alcoholic red wine, or 3 ounces of gin every day for four weeks. At the end of the four weeks, each subject rotated to a different drink and repeated the process before switching again such that by the end of the study, all 67 men had been observed consuming all three drinks. Each study participant had either diabetes or at least three of the following risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a family history of heart disease, excessive weight or obesity, or smoking.
RESULTS: The non-alcoholic red wine was associated with a significant decrease in blood pressure, lowering heart disease risk by 14 percent and the risk of stroke by 20 percent. The alcoholic red wine, however, did not appear to have such effects.
CONCLUSION: Even though alcoholic and non-alcoholic red wine contain the same amount of heart-healthy antioxidants, the alcohol may be blocking the polyphenols from doing their protective work. Non-alcoholic red wine may therefore be more effective at protecting the heart.
IMPLICATION: Pairing antioxidants with alcohol appears counterproductive. If you were drinking red wine for the cardiovascular benefits, consider switching to non-alcoholic wine, or any of the multitude of other ways to get antioxidants.
SOURCE: The full study, "Dealcoholized Red Wine Decreases Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure and Increases Plasma Nitric Oxide," is published in the journal 'Circulation Research'.
Do your non-alcoholic wines contain the health benefitting resveratrol or does the dealcoholization process denature it?
Resveratrol is kept in most of the dehalcoholized wine carry since the European wineries we represent use vacuum distillation, which preserves the original proprieties of wine without the need of adding harmful additives.