Partner Content: Moderato
The non-alcoholic wine market may still be small, but it’s clear to all that it’s growing fast. And Moderato, a Paris-based brand founded in 2020, is betting big on becoming the international benchmark for dealcoholized wine.
That bet is starting to pay off.
Backed by a $3.3 million raise and already exporting to 10 countries, Moderato is both riding the non-alc wave and helping to shape it. By blending French winemaking heritage with modern dealcoholization techniques, the company has positioned itself at the intersection of tradition and transformation.
Building a Category, Not Just a Brand
Moderato’s approach to growth is unusually disciplined for a startup in an emerging category. Rather than chasing scale, the company’s playbook focuses on structuring the market itself.
In practical terms, that looks like:
- Hand-picking distribution partners who share its premium positioning
- Running localized food-pairing activations with sober sommeliers and wine professionals
- Investing in trade training through its No Low Wine Collective
- Launching an education module for future sommeliers
It’s a strategy built for longevity, not just headlines. And it’s designed to adapt across markets while maintaining a core promise: non-alcoholic wine that honors the complexity, balance, and intention of traditional French bottles.
Matching Results Need Matching Attention
Moderato’s wines are made in Gers, in the heart of Southwest France. To produce the highest quality non-alcoholic wines, a key element is to craft high-quality alcoholic wines in typical styles—yet with a very specific balance. To do so, Moderato has built strong long-term partnerships with local winemakers to increase its quality from vintage to vintage, fine-tuning each wine profile with them.
To dealcoholize, Moderato uses vacuum evaporation to remove the alcohol, then reintroduces aromas lost during the process. The result is non-alcoholic wine that’s structured and expressive, with enough integrity to hold its own on a serious wine list.
Its Merlot-Tannat blend, for example, has been featured in Food & Wine Magazine and named best low-alcohol red by The Guardian. Moderato has also found its way into 30+ New York establishments, from Del Frisco’s to Gabriel Kreuther’s two-Michelin-star dining room. And they’ve garnered their fair share of awards, including:
- IWSC: White Colombard Cuvée Révolutionnaire (silver medal, 2024); Red Cuvée Révolutionnaire (silver medal, 2024); Sparkling Cuvée Révolutionnaire (bronze medal, 2024)
- Concours de Lyon: White Colombard Cuvée Révolutionnaire (silver medal, 2024); Rosé (silver medal, 2025)
- World Alcohol Free Awards: White Colombard Cuvée Révolutionnaire (silver medal, 2024); Red Cuvée Révolutionnaire (bronze medal, 2024 and 2025)
But Moderato doesn’t expect these awards to do the storytelling on their own.
In March 2025, it hosted a press lunch at La Compagnie in New York City, bringing together sommeliers, journalists, and sober hospitality leaders for a multi-course pairing menu. Curated by Abe Zarate, a sommelier leading the non-alc conversation, the event was both a launch and a statement of intent.
From French Success to a Global Framework
Moderato’s international push began early. “From the start, we knew the French market wouldn’t be enough,” says Export Director Karine Debu. In France, non-alcoholic wine still accounts for just 0.5% of total volume. In contrast, countries like the UK and US have seen more rapid adoption.
After impressing the most demanding French sommeliers, their performance in France convinced major international players like Canada’s SAQ and the UK’s Majestic to shake up their listing schedules to make room for this new offering as quickly as possible. At SAQ, Moderato now represents 10% of its alcohol-free wine sales. In the UK, a glowing Guardian review led to national distribution across 212 Majestic stores. And in the US, restaurant listings have been the entry point, not the endpoint, for wider visibility.
This “export first” mindset has helped the company triple production year over year, reaching 350,000 bottles in 2024.
Why This Method Is Working So Well
Moderato’s growth is not just about being early to a trend. It’s about executing a model that aligns with how today’s consumers drink, and how they think.
- According to the IWSR, 67% of wine drinkers in major markets are actively moderating their alcohol intake.
- In the US, sales of non-alcoholic wine are expected to grow by 10% annually through 2033.
- And while NoLo wines represent just 1.7% of the global wine market today, the category is poised for rapid growth.
Consumers are looking for complexity, ritual, and real wine experiences without compromise. Moderato sees this, and makes every attempt to deliver on all fronts.
What’s Next?
With growing recognition in both trade and press circles, Moderato is poised for a breakout year. Two obsessions set them apart: the quality of their products–thanks to substantial R&D investment—and the pleasure of the drinking experience, which they feel are the two two keys to opening up then on-alcoholic wine category.
But its ambitions aren’t just commercial. Through sommelier training programs and global events, the brand is working to build a more robust cultural infrastructure around non-alcoholic wine—one that doesn’t treat it as an afterthought, but as part of the broader culinary conversation.
Whether that’s enough to establish a new standard in the category remains to be seen. But if you ask Moderato, the world isn’t going to stop turning. And neither are they.
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V.O.S. Selections
(212) 967-6948
info@vosselections.com
For all other questions: contact@le-moderato.com
