No, it is not a natural wine; it’s a non-alcoholic fermented drink. However, you can find us at natural wine enthusiast fairs like Raw Wine, Karakterre, Naturale Festival Milano, Raisin, etc. While we are not a wine, we are passionate about nature, sustainability, and gastronomy. We have organic certification and we aim to promote biodiversity by re-evaluating humble and forgotten ingredients like beetroots and other often overlooked plants.

While Feral is not wine it definitely is alcohol free! We don’t want to copy wine or pretend to be one. We don’t want to de-alcoholize it because we don’t want to focus on ‘removing’ something (e.g., ethanol) which would be produced by a natural alcoholic fermentation.Instead, we’ve chosen a new path, starting with humble ingredients and elevating them with a specific kind of lactic fermentation, which does not produce alcohol.Despite this, we are still very inspired by the gastronomic experience which is often associated with a good wine: we want to recreate the slow, thoughtful and multidimensional moment which allows for a proper gastronomical exploration. We want to complement dishes without overshadowing them, creating a unique tasting journey that is not necessarily an alternative but rather complementary to wine.

No, Feral is not a Kombucha. Kombucha is a drink made from sweetened tea fermented with a particular community of bacteria and yeast called SCOBY, which digests sugar to create alcohol and various organic acids. Feral, on the other hand, is made from beet juice and does not use SCOBY but specific strains of lactic bacteria which we have carefully selected to guarantee the absence of alcohol and our defining organoleptic profiles. This means that we do not produce alcohol or CO2 (so Feral is not fizzy). That being said, everyone in our team loves all kinds of fermented foods and beverages, and we often drink Kombucha ourselves 😉

Great question! It's a new path. We are the first to use this process, which we have patented. Therefore, there’s no category name for it, but we like to call it non-alcoholic botanical fermentations (FAB), or FERmented ALternatives – Feral 😊. If you have any great ideas, send them our way! Generally, the market for wine alternatives or non-alcoholic pairings is on the rise, and in English-speaking countries, it’s often called Proxy, Wine Proxy, NOLO drinks, NA wine, or non-alcoholic wine alternatives. We prefer to focus on what we are rather than presenting ourselves as an alternative or proxy for something else. But feel free to call us whatever you prefer 😉

In addition to being alcohol-free, Feral has a number of calories about three times lower than wine (19 Kcal per 100 ml compared to about 85 in wine). The amount of residual sugars contained in our recipes is a maximum of 4.3%. We have selected ingredients of the highest quality and do not use preservatives. As for the botanicals, we start directly from the plants: leaves, flowers, berries, roots, woods. All extractions and macerations are produced in-house. 

Usually, we don't make health claims because health is a very serious topic that we don't want to be ‘just’ marketing. Since many people have asked us this question, we’ve decided to invest in health benefit analysis, which will be done by a certified laboratory. As soon as we have the results, we’ll be happy to share them!
We would like to emphasize that we pasteurize the beverage to make it shelf-stable and safe even for pregnant women, so the bacteria (including the beneficial ones) will no longer be alive at the end of the process.

Yes, Feral is suitable for consumption during pregnancy. At the end of fermentation and maceration, the product is pasteurized using a technology pending patent, making it a stable beverage at room temperature and safe even for pregnant women, without ruining its organoleptic characteristics. This way, even those who do not drink alcohol can taste something interesting. 

Feral N°5 contains less than 0.5% Vol of alcohol; therefore, it falls within the legal limits for non-alcoholic beverages. 

However, we cannot provide medical advice: we provide all technical and analytical information so that the doctor or the person themselves can evaluate. 

It does not contain sulfites or declarable allergens. 

Feral is truly alcohol-free because it uses lactic acid bacteria, which convert the naturally occurring sugars in beet juice exclusively into lactic acid without producing alcohol or bubbles. In kombucha, on the other hand, the yeasts present in the SCOBY produce alcohol, which is then largely converted into acetic acid by bacteria. Therefore, in kombucha, a small amount of residual alcohol often remains
In the case of Feral the absence of alcohol is guaranteed by analytic tests performed by certified laboratories, which all of our batches undergo before being sold.

No, we don’t grow our own ingredients, but we are proud to collaborate with experienced and committed farmers who have organic certification. This allows us to focus on the transformation process while supporting those who are already experts of growing botanicals.

Yes, we have a fermenteria in Mezzolombardo, in the province of Trento, where we ferment, macerate, and bottle all our products.

At the moment we are still a small startup, so we aren’t set up with staff to offer guided tours, nor do we have an on-site shop. However, we are friendly, work a lot (though we try to avoid working on weekends), and have an office (currently a bit messy) right in the fermentation facility. If you’re in Trentino and want to drop by, just let us know beforehand so we can see if one of us can welcome you. At your own risk, though—you might catch us painting the walls and we might invite you to join in! 😊

Three of our four recipes are certified organic, while for Feral #3 we are working on finding an alternative to oak wood, which we have not yet been able to identify (who would have guessed that finding an organic tree would be so tricky?!?).

Yes, Feral beverages are 100% vegan. (Feral is entirely made from tubers, roots, flowers, berries, woods, and spices: none of the ingredients we use come from animal products.)

The term 'lactic' referring to the bacteria we use might cause some confusion in Italian, but it has nothing to do with milk. These are microorganisms that are not part of the animal kingdom (in fact, these microorganisms are commonly found in vegetable fermentations as well).

The first four Feral references are bubble-free: the strains of lactic bacteria we use do not produce alcohol or carbon dioxide, but transform the sugars naturally present in beet juice into lactic acid. (The 5th recipe is the only with bubbles, right now!)

Feral can be enjoyed whenever you like. We recommend serving it in a wine glass and we provide some pairing and serving temperature suggestions for each product. However, we always encourage exploration, so feel free to let your imagination run wild!

Absolutely! While we serve it on its own in a wine glass, we’ve tasted some amazing alcohol-free cocktails created by our best customers. So, if you're into mixology, unleash your creativity, and we’d be happy to try and promote your creations!

Dry January is an initiative started in England in 2013 by athlete Emily Robinson and the organization Alcohol Change UK. Its goal is to raise awareness about the effects of alcohol, highlighting the risks of its use and abuse, while encouraging people to experience the impact of abstaining from it on their bodies and minds for a period of time. It’s a month without alcohol, right after the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, to start the year fresh. Why not give it a try?

We’ve also included the tough questions we occasionally get on social media 😊.  

There are several reasons. 

The first is related to the production process: our raw materials are not only organic and high-quality, but we also ferment and macerate them using an innovative process that we developed over two years of research. Not having alcohol means not having a natural preservative, so we can’t just leave the juice at room temperature and wait for it to ferment. We also can’t use significant thermal treatments—typical for fruit juices—because it would ruin the organoleptic properties. You can’t imagine how many production tests we failed before launching the product! 

We must work in highly hygienic conditions to avoid contamination, with continuous machine cleaning and microbiological analysis for each batch. We want to guarantee maximum safety and stability for the drinks, even for pregnant women.  

The second factor is that we are a startup, and our costs are significantly higher compared to large companies: ingredients, bottles, microbiological analysis, etc., cost a lot more to us than what bigger companies would pay. 

Lastly, a major cost in e-commerce is shipping. Right now, it costs us more than €10 to send each package, and much more abroad. We hope to improve distribution so you can taste our products closer to home at a lower price! And if you have any ideas for cheaper shipping options, we’re eager to improve on that.