When Dejou and Marco Marano launched Prima Pavé, they set out to create non-alcoholic wines with integrity, wines that honored terroir, craftsmanship, and tradition, without relying on additives or shortcuts. Their recent win at the 2025 Sommeliers Choice Awards, where Rosé Dolce Demi-Sec was named Non-Alcoholic Rosé of the Year, is a nod to this dedication. It’s a validation of their approach in an evolving category often criticized for lacking complexity. With a focus on clean ingredients, small-scale Italian farming, and low-intervention winemaking, Prima Pavé is making space for a different kind of celebration: one that embraces flavor, sustainability, and conscious choice.

Congratulations on Rosé Dolce being named Non-Alcoholic Rosé of the Year at the 2025 Sommeliers Choice Awards. What does this recognition mean to you and the Prima Pavé team? How do you plan to leverage the win in your global marketing efforts?

This result is a monumental recognition of our Rosé Dolce Demi-Sec and marks our collection's 35th medal, a crowning achievement for our team and validation that exceptional quality and terroir-driven expressions can be crafted in the dealcoholized wine segment. The Sommeliers Choice Awards is one of the largest and most competitive international wine competitions in the world, and our remarkable achievement provides a stamp of quality which we have integrated into an omnichannel campaign highlighting the ever-increasing quality and craftsmanship of non-alcoholic wines.

Image: Rosé Dolce, Winner of the title “Non-Alcoholic Rosé of the Year” at the 2025 Sommeliers Choice Awards.

Rosé Dolce is described as delicately sweet, with notes of strawberry cream and a whipped texture. What do you believe sets it apart from other non-alcoholic rosés on the market—and how does it reflect the grape varieties and Italian terroir you work with?

The distinct mouthfeel, texture, and flavor profile of our Rosé Dolce is unique in the industry. The work begins in the vineyards through a unique marriage of Northern and Central Italy via sustainably farmed Pinot Grigio, Gewürztraminer, and Sauvignon Blanc grapes from Friuli, combined with Montepulciano from Abruzzo. This rare blend provides a creamy mouthful while being whipped and airy with balanced, refreshing acidity. The result is an expression delicious to sip on its own or to pair with spicy and sweet dishes alike. The red and black fruits from the Montepulciano are lifted with the aromatics of the Gewürztraminer in a truly unique way.

The award-winning Rosé Dolce is made without added sugar or chemicals. Can you walk us through the process behind crafting this premium non-alcoholic sparkling wine and how it retains complexity and elegance without alcohol?

Our vineyard-to-bottle approach begins with harvesting sustainably farmed grapes grown by local farmers in choice plots throughout Friuli and Abruzzo. From this high-quality bounty, we create a rare wine blend crafted by traditional winemaking methods, inclusive of fully realized grape fermentation and vinification. We then dealcoholize each wine through our low-intervention, reverse osmosis filtration system. This low and slow de-alcoholizing process takes place over a series of weeks so that we can preserve the texture, mouthfeel, flavors, and complexity of a fermented wine. Once our wines are at 0.0% ABV, with great care, we add fine bubbles to be lively and persistent.

Image source: Prima Pavé.

Prima Pavé is already known as the world’s most awarded non-alcoholic wine. How would you describe your brand’s philosophy and positioning in the growing no/low alcohol category? Who is your ideal consumer?

Our philosophy is a simple one: create exceptional wines that just happen to be zero-proof with the least amount of intervention possible. Our entire collection is Non-GMO certified with a clean, transparent ingredient list of 3-4 ingredients. This means not adding extracts, aromas, teas, artificial colors, flavors, or sugars to which is rare in the non-alcoholic wine space. Our typical consumer is someone who appreciates the craftsmanship, romance, and transportive experience of wine, and at the same time is looking to cut back temporarily or permanently on alcohol without compromising on taste.

You’ve achieved an international profile quite quickly. Where is Prima Pavé currently available? Could you share your distribution strategy across the U.S. and other key markets? Are you working with any notable retail chains or restaurant groups?

We are currently sold in 15 international markets with footprints in North America, Europe, and Asia. Throughout the United States, we have a multi-tier approach, distributing through leading regional distributors of wines, beers, and spirits, as well as selling directly to premier retailers such as Eataly, Wine.com, K&L Wines, in addition to luxury hospitality brands including Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Fairmont, and Kimpton hotels.

Image: Prima Pavé tasting event at Eataly Chicago and Dallas. Source: Prima Pavé

With more importers and distributors showing interest in premium non-alcoholic wines, how do you support your partners in moving stock? What tools or marketing resources do you provide to ensure visibility and consumer education?

We have built out an international team of Tasting Ambassadors and continue to do so in growing markets. Our Tasting Ambassadors support our distributors by hosting multiple in-store tasting events throughout the year, thus putting liquid to lips while educating consumers on how to identify a quality non-alcoholic wine. We have also created branded display installations for retail partners and cobranded giveaways.

Image: Dejou and the Prima Pavé team’s tasting session.

Your presence in curated spaces like The New Bar suggests a lifestyle-driven approach to brand building. What types of marketing activities or partnerships have proven most effective for Prima Pavé so far, and how are you engaging with consumers both online and in real life?

We have an active event partnership strategy where we sponsor various events to meet our clients where they are, such as New York Fashion Week, the E-Prix in Monaco, LA Chef Con, and TedWomen, to name a few. Additionally, we have cultivated an online community of lifestyle experts from wellness coaches to sommeliers and chefs who genuinely love Prima and speak to our community through their unique knowledge and experiences.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly vital in wine production. Could you share what sustainable practices are embedded in your sourcing, production, or packaging, and how important this is to your brand identity?

In addition to being committed to sustainable farming practices and Non-GMO certification for our entire collection, we are also committed to a low carbon footprint from vineyard to bottle. Take our Blanc de Blancs and Grand Cuvée for example, the production loop encompassing harvesting, winemaking, dealcoholizing, bottling, and warehousing occurs within a 160-mile radius of Northern Italy, which is rare given that many producers harvest and make their wine in one country, dealcoholize their wines in another country, and warehouse bottles in a third country.

Image: Winners at the 2025 Sommeliers Choice Awards, (Left) Blanc de Blancs and (Right) Grand Cuvée.

What’s next for Prima Pavé? Are there plans to expand the portfolio, enter new markets, or innovate in other parts of the no/low alcohol category?

We are currently working towards the release of our inaugural still red wine, which has been 3 years in the making, while also expanding our distributor footprint in the United States and importer network in Asia, Europe, and Scandinavia.

Finally, many in the industry still underestimate the potential of non-alcoholic wines. What message do you hope this award, and Prima Pavé more broadly, sends to traditional wine professionals and consumers alike?

Consumers have been frustrated with non-alcoholic wine for decades, and rightfully so, with the poor quality of non-alcoholic wines historically available on the market. Rigorous standards and judging at international tasting competitions such as the Sommeliers Choice Awards will give consumers and retailers confidence when purchasing non-alcoholic wines for their homes and their stores in a way they never had before. We are immensely grateful for competitions such as the Sommeliers Choice Awards to include non-alcoholic wine categories and look forward to seeing the wine industry embrace the opportunity to craft exceptional non-alcoholic expressions, which will bring a whole new set of consumers into the singular world of wine.

Image Source: Prima Pavé.

Conclusion

As Prima Pavé looks ahead to new releases, including its first still red wine, the message is clear: dealcoholized wines can carry depth, elegance, and emotion when given the same respect as their alcoholic counterparts. Their growing presence in restaurants, luxury hotels, and international markets is not just a sign of rising demand—it’s a reflection of thoughtful leadership. For Dejou and Marco, it’s not about chasing trends but setting a new standard for what non-alcoholic wine can be—rooted in Italy, made with care, and designed to be shared.

In conversation with Malvika Patel, Editor and VP, Beverage Trade Network

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