The GenXperience Podcast: Tom Bell on Disrupting Drinks One Sip at a Time

By Brodie Gettins
The GenXperience Podcast: Tom Bell on Disrupting Drinks One Sip at a Time

DrinkWell Founder Tom Bell joined Stacey Jackson and Roy on the GenXperience Podcast — a conversation about why he started DrinkWell, how the low-calorie wine category works, and what smarter drinking actually looks like for a generation that grew up on Bacardi Breezers but now reads the label.

Key moments from the conversation

On starting DrinkWell: "I was a very active, fit and healthy guy. I played a lot of rugby. I wanted to find something that fit into my lifestyle — I enjoyed drinking and having a good time, but equally the other side was being fit and healthy. I couldn't find it. It wasn't available in the UK, but it was available widely in the US and Australia."

On how zero-sugar wine works: "The nature of wine is you've got sugar in the grapes. We determine exactly when in the year and under what environmental conditions we harvest the grapes, ensuring they are fully fermented and produce a completely dry wine with no residual sugar. There's nothing left. That's the science."

On the non-alcoholic trap: "One of the biggest beer brands in the world — its non-alcoholic version compared to its alcoholic version has 1000% more sugar. They have removed the alcohol but then have to put something else in to make it taste good."

Tom's recommendation: "In the wine world, a really good hack is looking for a wine that is 11% — that's the perfect number. The nature of wine at the moment is, if you go below 11% and it still tastes ok, it's going to be full of sugar. So you want an 11% dry wine. It can be white but you can also find some amazing Pinot Noirs at this level, especially French."

Try the wines discussed

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