No NA Wine in Your Lineup?

Who’s Getting the Next Pour?

You’ve worked hard to become someone’s favorite winery. Then they decide to drink less alcohol—and you hand the next sale to someone else.

They may still love your wine. They may still want a beautiful bottle on the dinner table, something worth pouring for friends and a glass that belongs in the toast. But tonight, they want less alcohol. Or none.

What do you have for them?

A thoughtfully developed low or non-alcoholic wine (“LoNo”) gives you an answer. And several good reasons to reconsider your lineup.

They’re switching. Can you keep up?

People don’t always spend an evening choosing between drinking and abstaining. Some move back and forth.

There’s a name for it: “zebra striping”—alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages throughout the evening.

A glass of your Chardonnay. A glass of NA sparkling. Perhaps a red with dinner.

If you offer both, your brand can have a place in more of those pours. If you offer only traditional wine, you leave the other choices to somebody else’s portfolio.

Water is a pretty low bar for hospitality

Four people walk into your tasting room. Three do tastings. The fourth gets a glass of water and waits.

You’ve created a lovely experience for three-fourths of them.

An appealing NA offering gives that fourth guest something to choose, taste and talk about. They get to participate instead of feeling like the proverbial fifth wheel.

That matters when the group decides where to go next weekend. The person skipping alcohol gets a vote, too.

It’s much like having a friend who is vegetarian or gluten-free. Considerate friends choose destinations where everyone can find something to enjoy.

“Would you like fries with that?”

Your customer is hosting dinner. Some guests drink. Some don’t. Some will do a little of both.

You can sell them the wines for their dinner party, with an NA bottle as a natural additional purchase. If they’re not buying it from you, they may shop elsewhere to find a suitable wine alternative.

The same opportunity can extend to weddings, restaurant pairings, corporate events and gifts. A good host wants everyone to feel considered. A desirable NA wine helps them do that without putting a juice box next to the stemware.

Nobody owes the table an explanation

“I’m not drinking tonight” can turn into a conversation someone never wanted to have.

A guest may want to skip alcohol and keep their reason private. They still want to raise a glass, enjoy dinner and be part of the evening without answering awkward questions.

Clear labeling and thoughtful presentation can do both jobs: make the contents easy to identify and give the person holding the glass something they’re delighted to drink.

But another SKU won’t rescue a weak idea

An NA wine needs to earn its place. Taste matters—a lot! So do production costs, pricing and whether your customers actually want what you’re offering.

A growing category can tempt a winery to rush straight to a label. That’s an expensive place to begin guessing.

Will your existing brand give the product credibility? Would a separate identity connect better with its intended audience? What makes it desirable enough to buy again?

Packaging can invite the first purchase. The product has to earn the second.

Your NA wine. Our design. Fewer headaches.

Your TTB-approved label doesn’t become an NA label because you added two letters.

NA wine labels fall under FDA labeling requirements rather than the TTB wine-labeling framework used for wines at 7% ABV and above. Product descriptions, ingredient declarations and nutrition labeling need their own attention, including any applicable exemptions.

And that’s only one piece of the puzzle.

You have a customer in mind, a price to support and a bottle that needs to look like it belongs at the table. Your producer has supplied information that needs translating into label copy. The printer needs usable artwork. That gorgeous paper may come with a minimum order that blows your budget. And all the required information must miraculously fit into four square inches.

This is where Sara Nelson Design comes in.

We design the label and help untangle the decisions around it: what deserves attention, where the required information belongs, which materials make sense and how to get the design into production. When the bottle, budget and printing process pull in different directions, we help find a workable path.

Bring us the product, the audience and all the loose ends. We’ll help you turn them into packaging you’re proud to put your name on—and your customers are pleased to put on the table.

See some of our work on NA wine brands.

Want a fresh take on your traditional wine labels? Explore our Wine Label Design portfolio.