Thursday, 18 February 2010

• Do You Favor Fermented Fruits?

  
  

  I reluctantly admit that attending WSET has made me a bit of a wine-snob.  I usually turn my nose up to box wines, Sutter Home and fruit wines.  Fruit wines have especially perplexed me for years.

  As a native Long Islander, I have made my share fair of trips out to Long Island wineries and experienced fruit wines but they cannot compare to the wines I tasted on a recent trip to New England.  Granted, I only stopped at two wineries and didn’t try all of their fruit wines but the sampling I had was enough to convince me that fruit wines can be good!
  

  Since the term “wine” refers to fermented beverages made from grapes, fruit wines must actually have the “fruit” descriptor in front of the word wine as to not confuse the masses.

   I visited Nashoba Valley Winery in Massachusetts and Blacksmith’s Winery in Maine.  Both wineries make all of their wine on the premises; however, they import their grapes from areas like Washington and California.  They are kind of cheating but their fruit wines are made from the fruit they grow themselves. 

  Blueberry Wine from Nashoba Valley

  I had three different types of blueberry wines, so I broke them down below:

  • Dry Blueberry -  I am a sucker for dry wines, so the name alone caught my eye.  It was probably the driest wines I have ever had and it was incredible.  The true blueberry flavor came out.
  • Blueberry Merlot – This one was blended with grapes, so it had more of that wine-y flavor to it.  It was good but sweet.  The sugar kind of sat on my tongue.
  • Blueberry Port – This was dessert in a glass.  It was heavy and tasted like chocolate.

  Elderberry Wine from Blacksmith Winery

  This was absolutely the closest to regular wine.  It was a dry fruit wine with an alcoholic bouquet.   

  Raspberry Wine from Blacksmith Winery

  This was extremely sweet and tasted just like a raspberry with a bunch of sugar poured on top.  My friends ordered other types of raspberry wines and all appeared to have that same sugary character.

  Sparkling Peach Wine from Blacksmith Winery

  This particular peach wine was sparkling, much like Champagne.  It was very light and sweet.

  I am glad I tasted some fruit wines and didn’t just stick to my regular grape wine and kind of sorry I’ve been missing out of fruit wines all of these years.  I doubt I will ever venture down the wine-in-a-box path though.

  Have you tried fruit wines?  What did you think?

  

  

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