Giesen Zero Chardonnay

The thing about Chardonnay is that it takes the shape the winemaker gives it, made light and unoaked in some hands, fermented and aged in oak for more weight in others. On the shelf, our September 2026 checks recorded this one from $12.99 to $22.99.

Official category guides place citrus and apple at the cooler end and stone fruit or tropical fruit in riper examples. Oak and time on the spent yeast can add toast, spice and a rounder feel, and the guides call those features winemaking choices rather than a guarantee. We do not have a shopper rating for this bottle, so there is no average to weigh against the fruit those guides describe.

Giesen Wines tells its own beginning plainly: three brothers, Theo, Alex and Marcel Giesen, left Germany for New Zealand and started the winery in 1981.

Giesen's own account of how this bottle becomes alcohol-free is specific: the wine starts as a full-strength Chardonnay, sourced from Hawke's Bay for ripe stone fruit and Waipara for citrus lift, with a portion aged in French oak for texture before the finished wine goes through spinning cone technology, a process the producer says separates the wine into its aroma, alcohol and body, removes the alcohol, then blends the aroma back in. The producer says the result keeps the alcohol at no more than 0.5 percent, and its technical sheet lists 18 grams per litre of residual sugar, which in plain terms is a noticeably sweet wine, at only 13 calories per 100 millilitres. Master Sommelier Cameron Douglas scored the wine 87 points, describing "flavours of peach and nectarine, with some apple and citrus peel notes" and "a creamy mouthfeel," his words.

Our call: this suits a shopper who wants to try alcohol-removed wine without giving up Chardonnay's usual shape; Giesen states its spinning-cone process plainly, keeps the alcohol below the legal non-alcoholic threshold, and a Master Sommelier's independent review backs the result. Pass if you want a dry style or a shopper rating to lean on: Giesen's own numbers put this on the sweeter side rather than the dry end of the style, and no shopper rating has reached our record yet.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.