The modern thing to drink? (3,4)

'the' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'modern thing to drink?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'modern' could be 'new' (synonyms) and 'new' is found in the answer.
'drink?' could be 'wine' (wine is an alcoholic drink) and 'wine' is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?