Are you ready for a $44 bottle of sparkling fruit juice?

Would you be willing to pay €29 (that's $44 in Australia) for a bottle of alcohol-free wine? 

Leading French wine brand Barton & Guestier, part of the Castel Group, is betting plenty of people are.

The fast-growing "no-lo" sector of the wine market is to be premiumised with the launch of the Nectarose brand, due to go on sale from the end of the year at €29 per bottle.

What is basically organic grape juice is 0.0% ABV and has natural rose aromas, with carbonic gas added to balance the palate with its 50 g/l of residual sugar.

At this price “the positioning is that of alcohol-free Champagne,” wine industry newsletterVitisphere reported Petra Frebault, marketing manager for the Barton & Guestier brand as saying.

Interestingly, the range will probably not be released in France.

Designed for the export market, Nectarose “targets seawater therapy centres and spas whose female clients want to treat themselves”, as well as “women who like sport and want to reduce their alcohol consumption," said Frebault with impressive sexism.

“This is a niche market,” said Barton & Guestier's sales director, Philippe Marion.

"Alcohol-free is very much associated with the lower end of the market in the United States, so we need our positioning to be unmistakably premium to reach out to consumers who want to treat themselves.”

Good luck with that Phillipe.

Barton & Guestier started making wine in Bordeaux in 1802 and now exports wine to over 130 countries. Its showpiece is the Chateau Magnol (pictured above).