Moa Gürbüzer founded non-alcoholic wine company Oddbird, which launched its first wine in 2013.Supplied
As alcohol consumption plunges worldwide, many winemakers are scrambling to cater to a growing desire for non-alcoholic options. But 13 years ago, a Swedish social worker was already miles ahead.
Moa Gürbüzer is the founder of non-alcoholic wine brand Oddbird, and as with many stories of great innovators, she never planned on becoming a winemaker, let alone a major disruptor of the entire category. For Gürbüzer, it all started with a desire to create social change.
She began her career in social work, teaching at the University of Gothenburg and seeing family therapy patients for more than two decades. Through the years, she became more and more alarmed at the impacts of alcohol abuse on children and was impassioned to do something about it.
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“No child in this world should suffer from parents drinking. That was the whole idea from the beginning. Which way can we prevent this kind of problem without shame,” explained Gürbüzer, who still operates Oddbird around this social mission.
“I had many ideas at first, but the inspiration for making non-alcoholic wine was to have a bottle in every household … so the question can be asked, ‘What would you like to have? Would you like your wine with alcohol or without alcohol?’ This way we change the culture, like asking to have coffee with milk or without.”
Lovgren studio/Supplied
Despite being a woman in her 50s with no formal winemaking training or experience in the industry, Gürbüzer threw herself into developing the world’s first premium de-alcoholized wine without any existing precedents. Although non-alcoholic wines did exist, they were generally lower-quality versions with lower price tags.
She quickly found the facility and team to help with de-alcoholization, but the challenge was finding a vineyard and a winemaker to work with her on creating a truly premium product. When she started knocking on doors in France in 2012, she was met with a chilly reception from the winemakers and regional consortiums.
“I was challenging a deeply traditional industry, and I didn’t fit the mould. … Some said to me, ‘Perhaps you’re in the wrong business’. The vineyards that I wanted to work with didn’t even accept my visit. I was kicked out from many places.”
She eventually succeeded in her quest to find those quality winery partners, but the challenges didn’t end there.
“In the early days, they asked me to order twice as much volume of wine as anyone else because they really didn’t trust this was going to work. I said, ‘Okay. I’ll take it.’ I was convinced,” Gürbüzer explains.
She also found support from unconventional places. When her own investment was tied up in grapes and the bank wouldn’t give her a loan, she raised private capital from her hairdresser, who fully believed in the social mission behind Gürbüzer’s idea.
Oddbird’s first wine, a sparkling Blanc de Blanc.Supplied
The first Oddbird wine finally launched in 2013 was a Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine and it was a stunner. It drinks like an early 2000s vintage champagne with tiny bubbles and a delicate mousse. It has notes of tart green apple and lemon, with a slight nuttiness. While many non-alcoholic bubblies can come across as overly sweet, Oddbird Blanc de Blanc is dry and crisp, with a touch of minerality.
According to Gürbüzer, it immediately took off in Sweden. “It was from a really good winemaker with a really good taste, the technique was different,” she said, comparing it with what had been available up until that point. “People want good quality even without alcohol.”
Oddbird expanded rapidly over the next decade with an average annual revenue growth of 20 per cent. The wines are now sold in 25 countries, including Canada, and are projected to sell more than 1.5 million bottles in 2025, something that only global alcohol brands with big budgets can manage. In the U.S., they’re No. 4 in national volume, and on the shelves at places such as Trader Joes and Erewhon.
Oddbird continues to push the boundaries on what’s possible with de-alcoholization.
“We’ve recently developed a research centre in Alsace and our goal is to continue to figure out how to produce the best red wine, the best white wine,” Gürbüzer explained.
Oddbird Addiction is a recent addition to the portfolio, a Spanish tempranillo.Supplied
Their recent portfolio additions include a GSM (grenache, syrah and mourvèdre) blend from the South of France, and a Spanish tempranillo called Oddbird Addiction that nails the dry, tannic profile of European wines. One of the first of its kind, it’s a perfect balance of dried herbs, oak, smokiness, chocolate and juicy dark cherry like a traditional wine.
And as for the wine consortiums who wouldn’t take her calls, the tables have turned and they’ve approached her looking for a way to be involved in that very same research centre.
Gürbüzer laughs at this. “It feels very good to have them calling me!”
Sarah Kate is an alcohol-free sommelier, writer and founding editor of the publication Some Good Clean Fun, which accepts advertising. She was previously affiliated with the Zeronimo wines brand in Canada and currently has no role as a brand ambassador for any non-alcoholic beverage brands.