About This Drink
Pinot Noir is one of the harder grapes to dealcoholise convincingly. The variety's appeal is tied up in its delicacy, its red fruit precision, and a silkiness that depends on how carefully the wine is handled. Take alcohol out aggressively and those qualities collapse. Moderato's approach — vacuum distillation at low temperature — tries to address that by removing the alcohol without the heat damage that more conventional evaporation methods can cause. The result is a light to medium-bodied red. Red cherry and raspberry sit at the centre of the flavour profile, with a faint earthiness underneath that keeps it feeling like Pinot rather than a generic fruit drink. The tannins are soft, which is appropriate for the variety. At 14 kcal and 2.7g sugar per 100ml, the numbers are very lean. It is a credible attempt at a Pinot Noir that has not been simplified into something unrecognisable. Whether it fully satisfies if you are used to the real thing is another question, but it is well-made within its constraints.





