Back at the World Alcohol-Free Awards — What’s Changed (And What Hasn’t)

By Alex V, Co-Founder & Sommelier

This week, I was invited back to judge at the 2026 World Alcohol-Free Awards.

It’s now my second time sitting on the panel, and in many ways, it felt familiar. But in a few important ways, it actually felt very different.

A year on, the category is clearly moving.

When I wrote about the awards last year, my post was largely one of celebration. And rightly so. The category was growing quickly, quality was improving, and more producers were entering the space. There was a real sense of momentum.

That’s still true. If anything, the pace of change has actually accelerated.

But spending a few days tasting wines blind, flight after flight, brings a different kind of clarity. And the biggest shift for me this year was this:

The gap is becoming more obvious.

Not just between good and bad, but between wines that are thoughtfully made and wines that are still trying to figure it out.

There’s a tendency to talk about the category as if everything is improving together. It’s not.

Some producers are making huge strides. Better balance, more restraint, clearer varietal expression. Others are still relying on excessive sweetness, overcompensation, or simply not starting with great wine in the first place.

And when you taste them side by side, that difference becomes very clear.

The strongest wines I tasted this year shared a few consistent traits. They start with serious wine. They prioritise structure over flavour alone. And they show restraint, rather than exaggeration.

There’s a growing confidence, by many producers, in letting the wine simply speak for itself, rather than trying to 'fix' it.

The question is also changing.

Last year, a lot of the conversation still centred around whether something was good for an alcohol-free wine. This year, that question felt less relevant.

Because when something is genuinely well made, you don’t need the qualifier. It’s just good.

And that’s where the awards are most valuable.

They bring a level of honesty. When wines are tasted blind, there’s no branding, no marketing, no positioning. Just what’s in the glass.

For the category to keep moving forward, that matters. It needs clear standards, critical evaluation, and a willingness to say when something doesn’t quite work.

For me personally, judging is always a bit of a reset.

Working day to day in this space, tasting, selecting, selling, it’s sometimes easy to get caught up in momentum. Judging strips that away and brings it back to one simple question...does this actually work as a wine?

The alcohol-free category doesn’t need more products. It needs better ones.

And it needs the confidence to hold itself to the same standards as 'traditional' wine.

Because the future of alcohol-free wine isn’t about catching up. It’s about confidently standing on its own.

Now, we just have to wait for those medal results!