At a wine tasting for Napa Valley’s Bella Oaks earlier this week, a table was set for five people. Three of the flights featured Bella Oaks’ traditional Bordeaux-inspired wines. The other two looked like Champagne, but they weren’t.
“If someone told me this was wine, I’d believe it,” said Gen-Zer Tony Flow Miller, donning a bucket hat and holding up a glass of the golden-colored Copenhagen Lysegron, a high-end sparkling tea created by a former Noma sommelier. “This is good.”
The sparkling tea flight is Bella Oaks’ new nonalcoholic tasting experience. Launched just in time for Dry January, it embodies a sobering reality for the wine industry: Consumers, especially younger ones, are increasingly choosing to abstain from alcohol — or at least restrain their consumption — beyond the first month of the year. A recent report from Nielsen declared that the nonalcoholic beverage market is “no longer a niche,” but a “billion-dollar” one that experienced more than 20% annual growth over the past year. Meanwhile, U.S. alcohol consumption has hit a 90-year low, according to a 2025 Gallup poll that revealed only 56% of U.S. adults reported drinking alcohol…