Future Château’s wine is considerably below a standard wine at around 13% and more akin to a beer in terms of strength.
The UK brand is the brainchild of Tom Benn: the former head of growth at Naked Wines and brand builder at Pip & Nut, Freja and Milliways. He launched Future Château in 2025: with a brand crafted from premium grapes using traditional winemaking techniques to deliver the aroma, mouthfeel and structure of the classic bottle – but with two-thirds less alcohol.
Meeting in the middle
Alcohol-free wine is growing: with a 10% CAGR forecast for 2025-2035.
But alcohol-free wine comes with plenty of challenges: which is why it only accounts for a very small part (around 3%) of the global alcohol-free category.
That’s where low alcohol wine could come into play. It helps consumers cut back their alcohol intake substantially: but without losing the elements that alcohol gives to wine. New Zealand, for example, has already seen the potential of lighter wines: investing in their development and production. So, too, has Australia.
In the UK, Future Chateau’s first vintage was launched last year: and helped Benn understand the market for a mid-strength wine.
“Vintage one proved the concept: there is demand for wine that tastes great with less alcohol, and customers will pay for quality - they don’t automatically assume less alcohol means cheap,” said Benn.
And there were some unexpected surprises.
“With our first vintage, we also learned a lot about brand and customer - I thought pre-launch my base would be young people, but in fact our core demo are successful 40-55 year old women,” said Benn.
The world of alcohol-free and low-alcohol wine is one defined by constant innovation: as producers continue to explore new ideas and techniques to create new products.
“It also gave us a very clear roadmap for improvement,” continued Benn. “At lower alcohol, every imbalance is amplified. You don’t have the cushion that 14% gives you.
“For vintage two we refined varietal selection, improved vine management and really nailed the blend which has led to more body, length and complexity on the finish. The improvements are material: in a blind taste test 100% of regular wine drinkers preferred vintage two to vintage one.”
The latest funding round was backed by a high-profile syndicate of investors: including Shilen Patel, founder of Diageo Ventures, ex-chairman of Seedlip and current chairman of Lucky Saint and MOTH; Benet Slay, ex-CEO of Carlsberg, ex-MD of Diageo and ex-Director at Seedlip; and Charlie Bowes-Lyon, co-founder of Wild Deodorant.
The investment will help fund Future Château’s second vintage, currently in production, which will include a improved Reserve Blanc and Reserve Rouge, an enhanced Sparkling, and a brand-new Rosé.
