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Experts and consultants: the new professional roles in the NoLow sector

Over the past decade, January has become a “dry” month. We’re not talking about weather or drought, but about alcohol consumption: originally launched in English-speaking countries, the Dry January movement — thirty days without alcohol to recover from the excesses of the holiday season — has now spread everywhere, including Italy. After all, NoLow is no longer a novelty: more and more Italians, especially from Gen Z, are interested in or at least supportive of healthier and more responsible lifestyle choices.

At the same time, NoLow products are starting to find a more structured place in the supply chain. According to the UIV–Vinitaly Observatory, based on IWSR data, the category is expected to grow by 38% by 2028, reaching 3.3 billion dollars globally, while in Italy it still accounts for only 0.1% of total wine sales — a sign of a young but accelerating market.
Within this context, the beginning of 2026 also marks a key turning point on the regulatory front: at the end of December 2025, an interministerial decree by MEF–MASAF was signed, defining the excise duty framework and the authorization requirements for the production of dealcoholised wines, thus completing a process initiated a few months earlier.

NoLow expert: a new professional role?

Every rapidly growing category needs bridge figures. NoLow is at this stage: on one side, consumers are looking for meaningful experiences; on the other, the supply chain must learn to handle products that do not behave like their alcoholic counterparts. This is where the NoLow expert comes in. Not a “sommelier without wine” nor a “bartender without spirits”, but a professional capable of combining technical knowledge, sensory skills and service expertise, translating a trend into replicable standards.

The first core competence is product literacy. In dealcoholised wine, for example, it is essential to understand the permitted techniques and their impact on structure and aroma, to grasp how the perception of body and sweetness changes, and to know what it means to work within an alcohol range where microbiological and oxidative stability must be managed more carefully. This is where cellar know-how becomes part of the service: the expert must be able to explain why two dealcoholised wines can be so different, and which process choices — from oxygen management to storage practices — affect what ends up in the glass.

The second competence is sensory and cultural. NoLow often lives on the edge of categories: dealcoholised wines, 0.0 beers, non-alcoholic cocktails, low-ABV ready-to-drinks. The expert must develop a tasting language that professionals can share, avoiding the shortcut of “it tastes the same” and instead working on consistency, stylistic intent, and consumption context. In other words, the category cannot stand if it remains imitation; it stands when it offers alternatives with a distinct identity.

The third competence is regulatory and supply-chain related. Knowing how to read label definitions, understanding thresholds and restrictions, clearly distinguishing between “dealcoholised” and “partially dealcoholised”, and grasping the implications of authorisations and tax rules — these are elements that reduce risk and ambiguity, especially for distributors and operators in the horeca sector.

As for training, the current realistic profile of a NoLow expert is built in layers. It often starts in service — in sommellerie or mixology — and is completed with a solid foundation in food technology, quality control, and market analysis. An encyclopedic profile isn’t necessary, but the ability to communicate across disciplines is. NoLow is (still) a boundary field, and those who interpret it well are those who can navigate across competencies without compromising rigour.

NoLow consultants: services offered and target businesses

If the identity of the NoLow expert is hybrid, so are their services. In the on-trade sector, their role is to transform a “token presence” into a “value-driven” assortment. This means selecting products that can hold their own on a menu, establishing a pricing strategy that doesn’t treat NoLow as a side note, and designing pairings and service styles that make the customer feel part of the toast — not excluded from it.

In retail and distribution, the expert works similarly to a category specialist: segmenting the offer, identifying both high-rotation products and those with an educational function, helping interpret labels and market positioning. Here, highly practical aspects come into play, such as sensory stability and time management. Products that are less protected by alcohol may be more sensitive to oxidation and contamination, and the value of technical advice increases when the goal is to avoid turning a consumer’s first — possibly disappointing — experience into a definitive barrier.

When working with manufacturing companies, NoLow opens up an even more technical field. The expert can support R&D and quality teams in defining a target profile, designing sensory panels, and selecting packaging protocols. They can assist operations and process engineering in addressing hygienic requirements, inerting procedures, dissolved oxygen management, filling and sealing repeatability, and product-material compatibility — because these are often the very points where a promising NoLow project is either made or lost. With a regulatory framework that has now defined both terminology and fiscal boundaries, the conversation returns to familiar ground for industry professionals: quality, standards, and variability control.

Lastly, there’s an area of cultural mediation that is often crucial: events, hospitality, guided tastings, and brand experience projects in which NoLow must coexist with alcoholic products — without lapsing into moralism or identity-based opposition. This is precisely where the expert plays a key role: creating continuity between tradition and innovation, and framing moderation as a choice of quality, not as a sacrifice.

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