Grad 36°

The wine

Into the glass: cassis, plum, a little lavender and spice — darker fruit, not a sweet red. The tannin is the reason to open it with food. Spice and dry fruit on the finish. Off-dry, bright acidity. Cool service, not cellar-cold.

Cassis and plum announce the pour; the grip keeps it from reading as juice alone. Lavender and spice sit behind the fruit rather than on top of it. Most nonalcoholic reds lean sweet in the middle; this one stays dry enough that pepper and cocoa have somewhere to land. Dark cherry joins the cassis and plum once the sip opens; tannin and acidity give the fruit a frame. Pour cool, eat something with fat, let the tannin do its brief work. Not a sweet red — spice and dry fruit close the glass. Cassis and plum first, grip second, pepper and cocoa last: a red that admits fruit and herbs without drowning either in sugar. Darker than a cider-pink fruit bomb; the tannin is the point of the pour. Start with the pour itself — dark fruit into the glass — and the grip explains why food belongs beside it. Cool glass, dark fruit, grip for food — spice and dry fruit on the way out.