10-Feb-2025 – Last updated on 10-Feb-2025 at 11:15 GMT
Much has been made of the growth of alcohol-free wine in France: a country known for its traditions and passionate culture around wine. Can alcohol-free wine really revolutionize both a category and a society? It makes for a great headline: the French are turning to alcohol-free wine. It’s one that’s captured the attention of media outlets worldwide, ranging from NPR to the BBC. But is France really turning its back on tradition in favor of alcohol-free? It makes for a great headline: the French are turning to alcohol-free wine. It’s one that’s captured the attention of media outlets worldwide, ranging from NPR to the BBC. But is France really turning its back on tradition in favor of alcohol-free? Answering that question requires taking a step back and looking at France’s wine industry and relationship with alcohol as a whole.
‘Le defi de Janvier’ We know that consumers are drinking less alcohol around the world. That drive towards moderation is also being seen in France. Dry January in France was officially launched in 2020. But 2025 has been the year that Dry January (or rather, ‘le defi de Janvier’) has really hit the mainstream. Articles abound in the mainstream media. Doctors now put posters in their waiting rooms. Many more people now understand the concept of Dry January (but not all: as BeverageDaily struggled to explain the concept to a French woman, she finally exclaimed – aghast – “What, we can’t even drink beer?!”).
More than 4.5 million French people took part in Dry January in 2024, according to figures used by Le Monde, the NIH in the US and Associations Addictions France. That’s around 6% of the population (compared to around 16% in the UK, where the movement originated and is much more established).
How many people do Dry January? Figuring out how many people take part in Dry January is always a challenge: because there’s often a gap between intent and actual participation and what respondents consider ‘counts’ as Dry January (some are happy to accept the odd dalliance with a drink as par for the course, others are not).
Other surveys are much more bullish about consumers’ enthusiasm for Dry January: one puts this figure at 27% and another says 60% of French people wanted to try it in 2024 (a suspiciously high figure, as it would put participation far higher than the UK).
