Hey Roberto, as soon as I saw this I knew I had a bottle of Alba from when I lived in Jersey years ago… 2003 Alba Vineyard Raspberry- USA, New Jersey (2/23/2014)
Roberto mentioned this in WB as being a dry wine in a discussion about blueberry wine and I immediately thought, I have a bottle of that! I bought it in 2003, when I lived in Jersey. I figured I should pop it and cross my fingers. The first whiff is a train wreck of burnt rubber and grease. I could not bring myself to taste it. It has the lovely color of coca cola. Insert sarcastic emoticon here. After thirty minutes of frequent swirling, however, the nose blossoms into wet jockstrap dipped in century old pine tar. I did have the nerve to put it to my lips and surprise of all surprises…lots of fig, very ripe raspberries, a hint of mint and some Asian spice. Mushroom notes along with their umami. A very nice streak of acidity too! This wine is definitely not bad but it is also definitely not dry. Just on the bad side of cloying but I’ve had famous Sauternes and tokaji more cloying than this. Surprising, though I’m glad to have something else open because this is a one glass and out kind of sweet wine.
Yep. The problem for fruit wines are: 1) people not knowing what they’re doing, 2) an often higher degree of quality control required to make a good product, and 3) difficulty commanding a market price that make the costs of crafting a quality wine worth it. So, most fruit wine on the market equates to bottom shelf bulk wine. However, some home winemakers make fantastic stuff. The late Milan Maximovich of Thunder Mountain made a legendary plum wine, aged in barrels.
In NJ, it’s a thing, not sure it’s a big thing. More of a novelty.
References already made to Tomasello and Alba, the two most frequently found in stores. The drier versions are sometimes mixed with a Brut sparkling wine. Renault Winery outside of Atlantic City makes a sparking blueberry wine. A peach wine made by Heritage Winery is another popular fruit wine in NJ.
If you are a NJ food and wine festival in the heat of the summer here, you may want to seek one of these out (considering the other local alternatives). If not, not sure I would look very hard for these.
Greg, I tried this on a visit to the Amana Colonies (Amish community in Iowa) many years ago. Pretty funky sweet/tart stuff it was. Probably lots of Chaptalisation!
Many states in between CA an VA make wine from all sorts of fruit. I know of at least two producers in CO that make wine from blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, peaches, apricots, pomegranates, etc. Not my cup if tea, but I have made cocktails using various fruit wines. Plus, lots of people like the sweet fruity beverage these fruit wines are.
“At about 3 brix residual sugar, we press off the blueberry juice and complete fermentation in stainless steel tanks. The wine is transferred to American oak barrels for 12 to 18 months. It is then blended and bottled dry.”
What’s the alcohol on a wine fermented from 3 brix must, 4%?
I have made blueberry for many years and entered into the king of fruit wine contests and won gold… Blueberry is the my lotto … as is peach, raspberry and cherry … If you are that interested I can send you a blueberry 12.25 alc made from 90’% blueberry and 10% white wine grape like Aurora … I am the fruit wine king of the FLX … LOL… WHO KNEW , RIGHT ?
Ok RS over 4% as I don’t disclose due to the complexities of the acids in fruits and the relationship to sweetness perception, ya see its a story so I avoid it … The ladies love my fruit wines… AKA the ‘panty dropper’ series … even tho most wear thongs today or nothing …
From that quote it sounds like they are pressing near the end of fermentation. I can only guess, but maybe there’s something that will extract harshly near the final ABV. Btw, there aren’t many other fruits with the sugar level of grapes, so pretty much all fruit wines are chaptalized. Many need acid, some need tannin. That’s why grapes are so magical.
These are interesting thoughts. After millennia of winemaking with grapes, with the attendant improvement of technique, grape varieties, etc., I think that we have a collective bias against wines made from other fruits, but had there never been grapes, surely we would have wine or wine-like beverages made from other fruits and even other foodstuffs (plum wine and saki have both been around for millenia, too), and the same skill and effort devoted to winemaking with grapes may have been devoted to one or more other fruits…
