Red

The wine

Raspberry, strawberry, and red plum arrive as one ripe cloud. This is a dealcoholized, lightly sparkling red, and the glass puts the fruit first.

The aroma is those three fruits, and ripeness is the whole of it. Raspberry and strawberry sit forward. Red plum rounds the edge. You know the glass before the sip, and the knowing is the point. This is fruit, plainly.

The sip is sweet, soft, and fruit-forward. Light acidity does not argue hard. A gentle bead lifts the middle without turning it into soda. Mouthfeel stays soft from the first swallow through the middle. Sweetness carries the fruit, and the acid is only a bright edge beside that sweetness. Balance sits in that order: fruit and sugar, then a small lift from the bead. The pleasure is how easy that order is, and how little the glass asks of you. Juicy is the right word for the middle.

It does not behave like a conventional red. There is no warmth through the middle, and no layer under the fruit. The close is simple and juicy, the same red fruit, then done. Cold, it is a glass for when you want that fruit and can leave a sterner red on the shelf.