BOLLE

He founded BOLLE in 2021. The name means "bubbles" in Italian, a nod to those family moments in Treviso and to the sparkling wines that defined them.

The technical problem Vanin set out to solve is one that plagues most dealcoholised wine. Standard dealcoholisation strips out more than just alcohol. It takes the texture, the structure, the aromatic complexity that makes wine interesting in the first place. What you're left with is often thin and flat, something that tastes processed rather than crafted. Vanin spent years developing a solution: a twice-fermentation process, conducted after dealcoholisation, that rebuilds the character the first step removes. The process is patent-pending and, as far as BOLLE claims, unique to them.

The range centres on sparkling wines. The Blanc de Blancs and Sparkling Rosé are the core bottles, joined by a Chardonnay still wine and, at the top of the range, the Grand Reserve, aged nine months on lees, which is a genuinely unusual proposition in the alcohol-free category. Winemaking on lees, the spent yeast sediment left after fermentation, contributes a creamy, brioche-like quality to wine over time. Doing it with a non-alcoholic product adds technical complexity that most producers simply bypass.

The accolades are notable. Wine Enthusiast gave the Sparkling Rosé 93 points, a score that attracted attention in wine media because the reviewer was apparently unaware it was non-alcoholic until after scoring. The London Wine Competition awarded the Chardonnay 95 points. These aren't niche AF awards judged on a curve; they're mainstream wine competition results, which is where BOLLE has deliberately positioned itself.

Distribution reflects that positioning. BOLLE is stocked in Michelin-starred restaurants and fine dining venues, sold direct from their website, and available through Amazon and specialist online retailers. Prices start around £20 a bottle, which places it firmly at the premium end of the alcohol-free wine market.

The brand's appeal is straightforward: it's aimed at people who want to drink something that functions as wine at a restaurant table or dinner party, not a grape juice compromise. Whether the technical process fully delivers on that ambition is a fair question, but the competition results suggest BOLLE is closer to the mark than most.