Wine Water Is a Real Thing You Can Buy Now, but Who Is It For?

Wine water is exactly what it sounds like: It’s water that tastes like wine, and it’s completely non-alcoholic. It’s okay if you’re surprised to hear that this is actually a real beverage, and not an elaborate prank. After all, was anyone really asking for bottled water that mimics the flavor of wine? Whether we’re ready for it or not, O.Vine has arrived in the U.S.

NBC News reports that an Israeli company called Wine Water Ltd., first debuted O.Vine in 2018. It’s made by infusing water with “grape skin and seed,” materials that usually go to waste during the winemaking process. That means there’s one huge plus to wine water: It contains a similar antioxidant content to red wine (at least according to the company that makes it). At the moment, it comes in two “flavors”: chardonnay and cabernet.

Curious about who might be interested in drinking wine water? Wine Water Ltd. has an answer, sort of.

“O.Vine is the perfect match for people that cannot drink alcohol and actually for people that don’t drink water,” the company’s CEO Anat Levi explained on Good Morning America.

It does make sense that people interested in a little antioxidant boost in their water might be interested in this beverage (although it’s worth pointing that antioxidant-infused water has been around for a long time and it doesn’t taste like an alcoholic beverage that you typically consume only after work hours). But who are all these people who don’t drink water? There are people out there, certainly, who don’t enjoy the taste of water, but still drink it, perhaps begrudgingly, to survive. Would making water taste alcoholic really make it more appealing to those people? I’m not convinced.

If you choose to not drink, and you miss the taste of wine, O.Vine might be appealing (it’s sort of like O’Doul’s of the wine world). Whatever works! However, I imagine there are many more sober people who either can’t or prefer not to drink anything even slightly resembling alcohol. Which still begs the question, who exactly is wine water for?

Wine in its best form does taste good, and some people drink a glass of wine because they like the taste and not because they want to get tipsy. However, I would venture to say that what makes wine so popular is that it does also make you tipsy. Wine-flavored water sort of defeats the purpose of what makes wine so great, because you’re drinking something that tastes alcoholic without any of the fun benefits of actual alcohol.

If you’re intrigued and want to try it out for yourself, O.Vine available for purchase online at Beverage Universe.