S01E01: Judging the World's Best Non-Alcoholic Drinks- Inside SommZero with Alex Viol

For this episode of On the Wagon Podcast, I sat down with Alex Viol, sommelier and co-founder of SommZero, an importer and distributor bringing premium non-alcoholic drinks to bars, restaurants, and retailers across Canada. Alex recently returned from judging the World Alcohol Free Awards in London, and we covered everything from what that experience revealed about the state of the category to the practical differences between building a non-alc business in Canada versus the UK.

Judging the World Alcohol Free Awards

Alex was judging the World Alcohol Free Awards for the second time this past March. Unlike many drinks competitions that fold non-alcoholic entries into a small subcategory of an otherwise alcohol-focused event, this awards program is dedicated entirely to non-alc, which allows organizers to build out much more nuanced categories and judge similar products fairly against each other.

While many drinks competitions have seen entries decline over the past year or two, driven by trade volatility and other macro pressures, the World Alcohol Free Awards held steady with a similar number of submissions to the previous year. Alex sees that as a meaningful signal of continued growth in the category, even against a tougher backdrop for the broader drinks industry.

One structural change stood out this year: rather than mixing judges broadly across categories, organizers grouped judges by specialty. With Alex's background in wine, he ended up judging far more wine entries and fewer spirits than the year before. He noted that quality across the board has risen noticeably, and niche subcategories that might have had only one or two entrants in the past are now seeing meaningfully more competition. The flip side, he said, is that products which haven't invested in quality now stand out for the wrong reasons; the market no longer has much patience for a half-finished product.

Saturation, or Just the Beginning?

We talked about a trend I've heard elsewhere in the industry - that non-alc retail is starting to mirror traditional alcohol retail, with a dedicated option for seemingly every category. Alex pushed back gently on the idea that the market is broadly saturated. Some categories, like sparkling rosé, do have a lot of entrants. Others, like gin, actually saw very few submissions this year, not because non-alc gins don't exist, but because it's a harder space for new entrants to break into credibly.

His broader point was that even in categories with several strong existing options, there's still room to succeed by finding the right sales channel and the right community, since non-alc products can reach venues and audiences that regulated alcohol simply can't, including spas, hotels, community centres, and sports facilities. As he put it, non-alc "really doesn't have any boundaries," so success is often about being creative about where and to whom you sell.

Canada and the UK: Shared Demand, Different Structures

Alex also runs a business in the UK, and I was curious what lessons might transfer between the two markets. He was clear that consumer demand is broadly similar in both countries, but the market structures differ significantly.

Canada's provincial liquor monopolies (like the LCBO or SAQ) shape how anything above 0.5% can be sold, and private liquor retail varies significantly by province. The UK operates more through private regional and national wholesalers, creating a genuinely free market where producers can move between distributors if one isn't working out. Logistics matter too. Canada's geography and extreme weather make direct-to-consumer shipping far more complex and costly than in the more compact, temperate UK.

One nuance Alex was careful to push back on the common assumption that whatever happens in the UK happens in Canada a few years later. He doesn't think that's a fair characterization. Import timelines in Canada can take six to eight months, which naturally slows things down, but he attributes much of the UK's faster pace of innovation to its proximity to the wider European market and its higher population density, not to Canada simply lagging behind.

He did note that premium non-alc products have seen real growth in the UK, a trend he's now starting to see reflected in Canada as well. Mid-strength drinks, meanwhile, are picking up in the UK's more open regulatory environment in a way that isn't really possible in Canada, where anything above 0.5% falls under the same government monopolies as full-strength alcohol.

Building SommZero

SommZero started from a personal place. Alex's best friend and now UK business partner went through her own sober journey and missed dry white wine, a drink that had been part of her identity. Searching for good options for her led Alex down what he called the rabbit hole of non-alc wine, and, alongside co-founders Bobby and John, into building a business around it.

From the start, SommZero has focused on credibility- bringing sommelier and hospitality expertise to conversations with bar managers, restaurant owners, and retailers who might otherwise be skeptical of non-alc. Rather than chasing volume, the team has been deliberate about working with small and medium-sized independent producers who care about craft and quality, choosing to represent fewer products they genuinely believe in rather than a broad catalogue.

Lessons from the Field

Alex shared some of the more memorable moments from building the business, including showing up at boozy events specifically because non-alc customers had asked whether SommZero would be there. Not everyone has been receptive. Plenty of people have laughed off the idea of a non-alcoholic wine table. But there have also been genuine wins, including a customer who fell in love with a wine at a tasting, kept coming back for more, and only learned it was non-alcoholic after the fact.

He was candid about the operational side too, including the discovery that non-alcoholic wine freezes more easily than its alcoholic counterpart, a lesson his business partner learned firsthand after a temperature-control disaster over the holidays required an emergency trip across the country.

Community and What's Next

Alex spoke warmly about the broader Canadian non-alc community, citing the team at Sansorium as an early source of generous advice despite being technically a competitor, and about the independent retailers SommZero supports, whose daily hustle he says keeps him motivated on tougher days. He's equally inspired by the producers pushing quality forward and by the everyday customers who share their personal reasons for choosing non-alc, whether that's health, pregnancy, faith, or simply curiosity.

Looking ahead, SommZero has new products coming into its portfolio from both existing and brand-new producers, along with ongoing events, cocktail classes, and wine tastings across the country. You can follow along on Instagram, through their newsletter, or at sommzero.com.

On the Wagon Podcast covers the non-alcoholic drinks movement, sobriety, and sober-curious living in Canada. Subscribe for more conversations with the people building this community.