What wines do you suggest that do not have alcohol in them? In certain cultures , wine is an important part of their history. Wine is a big part of their celebrations in feasts, festivals and Appointed times. Which some fundamentalists disdain wine-drinking as deemed to them "evil deserving of fiery hell". But I don't think so. If Noah got "drunk" (did he?) because he drank the "fruit of the vine" he and his sons grew, alcohol is naturally recurring in wine with age?
All wine has alcohol in varying amounts. The fermentation of the fruit produces alcohol. If you are cooking with wine the alcohol dissipates quickly from the heat.
It is possible to buy wine that is 'non-alcoholic', though in fact this is a misnomer. There will always be a small percentage of alcohol. The same goes for beer. Personally, I've never seen the point - it always struck me as being like asking for an omelette without eggs.
When I first moved down here, I had a roommate from Ohio. In a conversation, she mentioned 'near beer', which I had never heard of before. Apparently it was available in Ohio, although I had never heard of it in Massachusetts or Texas. I think it must be similar to O'Doul's, which I have heard of, but I've never really seen the point of it.
I was reading a history of beer-making for the family, and it amazed me that people used to make enough beer for the whole family to drink with their meals. You know some of those drinking the beer had to be just little kids. The book that I was reading was kind of like an old time homesteading manual, so it described how much beer you would need to make for whatever size family you had. I think that this beer was very different from what we see nowdays as beer, especially commercial beers. It was made out of natural ingredients, and had actual nourishment to it; plus, it was not very strong, as far as the amount of alcohol. This is probably why it was considered as a drink for the whole family. Here is part of the recipe : Beer is a good family drink. A handful of hops, to a pailful of water, and a half-pint of molasses, makes good hop beer. Spruce mixed with hops is pleasanter than hops alone. Boxberry, fever-bush, sweet fern, and horseradish make a good and healthy diet-drink. The winter evergreen, or rheumatism weed, thrown in, is very beneficial to humors. Be careful and not mistake kill-lamb for winter-evergreen; they resemble each other. Malt mixed with a few hops makes a weak kind of beer; but it is cool and pleasant; it needs less molasses than hops alone. The rule is about the same for all beer. Boil the ingredients two or three hours, pour in a half-pint of molasses to a pailful, while the beer is scalding hot. Strain the beer, and when about lukewarm, put a pint of lively yeast to a barrel. Leave the bung loose till the beer is done working; you can ascertain this by observing when the froth subsides. If your family be large, and the beer will be drank rapidly, it may as well remain in the barrel; but if your family be small, fill what bottles you have with it; it keeps better bottled.
Monks were always noted for brewing beer, largely because water could be a bit dodgy in medieval times, so brewing beer with it made a lot of sense. There are still a few monastery breweries in Europe.
@Yvonne Smith How interesting! I think that sounds pretty healthy, sort of like the old time tonics people would use for various ailments. I wonder what it tasted like, and if anyone these days makes that type of beverage. It'd be interesting to taste it, and see what, if anything, it compares to that might be available today.
@Diane Lane , the book is called "The American Frugal Housewife" and it is free on the Kindle store if you want to read more about how they did things back then. Some things we could still do, and maybe, some not so well, but it is interesting to read. Amazon always has some books for free everyday; but I think that this one is old enough that it is always free on there.
Definitely grape juice is what a "type of wine" should be, since to be named wine has to have some alcohol content even if in very low percentage of alcohol proof, which is how alcohol content in a beverage is measured. In some religious cults, ministers make use of grape juice as the blood of Christ to substitute red wine used commonly in mass celebrated, in example, by the Catholic church. But in a more casual and neutral context, the only alcoholic drink I know that has a non-alcoholic counterpart is beer. Depending on the place you live or where you buy it from, it might be a carbonated or non-carbonate drink, but watch out and check the label because while it is brewed without alcohol, some commercial brands add it at some point of the process for a "brand new root beer experience."
No wine will always have alcoholic content in it. As others have pointed out if it wasn't femented which causes the alcholic effect it would just be grape juice. Anyway, I don't know of any non-alcholic wine on the market unless you count grape juice of sparkling grape juice. Other then that wine is wine and it will have alcohol in its content.
From what I know, the reason for calling them wine is because of their alcohol content. In other words, you can get intoxicated or even drunk when you drink wine in excessive volume. But I know that a drinker who gets drunk on wine gets a terrible headache the next morning... that funky hangover, huh. I am not an alcohol drinker although I sip wine on occasions. That is why I know something about wine because I made a brief research before I got hold of the wine glass. My father is an alcohol drinker and his favorite is whiskey. He was the one who said that wine is okay in small dosages only. So there.