While the natural in the subject admittedly is a bit of clickbait, this wine is natural in the best sense. Nothing added or taken away. Saw it with my own eyes and “worked” harvest at my parents in law picking the berries and witnessing the crushing.
Perfectly clean, some reduction initially, the bottle(s) and wines have survived modest consumption for over a year (!), and still going strong, better in terms of complexity at this stage.
Yes my in laws made this unlabeled 2021 release, some bottle variation though all taste great (have been following two bottles simultaneously since release), however the sugar content and alcohol levels probably varies.
The notes are from the Jamnica glass bottle - fermented drier (still some residual sugar for sure yet quite dry taste), and my favorite bottle at the moment:
An intoxicating and terrific nose, showing surprising level of complexity with a wide variety of darker fruits (berries, plums mainly), oriental warm spices, hints of herbs. Same on the palate. Great sapidic acidity that perfectly balance the sweetness level of the wine. There are nice fine grained yet grippy tannins and a long finish going on for well over a minute.
It’s seriously good, I never expected to find this level of depth and complexity in a non grape made wine.
I would be curious to hear if others have experienced serious depth and complexity in wines other than grape made?
My plum wines had good complexity. My unidentified black plums are good in the crunchy red, purple and black ripeness levels and included that range. I’d alao typically add about 3% cherry plums, which have a thick, tart skin contributing a lot of tannin, acid and a Petit Verdot quality. The '08 got about 6% cherry plum and was near undrinkable the first year, then aged really well, getting called blind as Pinot Noir. Its finally on the oth side now. A couple vintages got a small percent Mariposa plum, which added a floral Montepulciano note. Then one vintage only, the purple-ripe fruit had an intense baking spice charater, which added a lot to the wine. I got that one other year, after i stopped making the wine. No idea what that comes from, but the tree’s been producing for over 30 years and it only happened twice.
A friend’s apricot wine i helped make had a crazy complexity if white and yellow fruit, with no apricot character. It oassed blind for a good Rhone white. 91 points from Richard Jennings.
My feeling is quite same as yours.
Was quite surprised about the drinkability, quality and complexity. I guess the sugar levels (high alcohol or/or sweetness) of many other berries and fruits might be one of the challenges.
How cool isn’t it that you make plum wine Wes! And that it it’s getting called Pinot noir in blind tasting, wow. One of my bottles had more of the baking spice notes.
How different is it (more in sense of things to have more attention on) to make compared to grapes and challenges to make a good wine?
I love hearing about quality fruit wines. The good ones I’ve had make for a short list, and almost all are from one winery: Bartlett in Maine. Even his NV Oak Dry Blueberry still tastes youthful at 10 years old. Some of the vintage Winemaker’s Reserve Blueberry wines will probably outlive me, and I’m not that old. His reserve pear is no slouch either (not sure what differentiates wine from cider in this case, if anything, but he calls it wine). The Trio dessert wine (blueberry, raspberry, and ???) might be immortal. Other than those, I am very excited about the blueberry wine from Jim Anderson and Kelley Fox. The first release is extremely promising, in quite a different style from the Bartletts. It’s more elegant, less oak influenced, and has some interesting savory characteristics. I am really looking forward to trying future releases, and seeing how this first one ages.
Some of it is pretty good. I have served them at Christmas a few times, as it is a good match to the danish rice/almond pudding dessert called “risalamande”.
Originating from a place packed with blueberries it’s kind of silly that I only seen it as liqueur form when with alcohol. Might try to plant the idea with my mom to to give it a try, she’s an experienced (home) honey winemaker.
Funny that all other ways of using the “product” was mentioned instead of how it could be paired. Based on your impression, a very very sweet dessert at best
OMG, I’m not putting out carrots for the reindeer and cookies for Santa. Screw that!
I’m feeding the elfs! Awesome
According to tradition, hot rice pudding is also the dish eaten by nisser, the Christmas elfs, which is common in other Nordic countries too. As such, children may put out a bowl of rice pudding, and if eaten (possibly by a cat, or more often, the parents), it will demonstrate the existence of the nisse. This usage is derived from the ancient belief in house spirits.
On Christmas Eve, a whole almond is added to the dessert, and the person who finds it wins a small prize such as a marzipan pig, a chocolate heart or a small board game.[2] The finder may conceal their discovery as long as possible, so that the rest of the partygoers are forced to eat the entire dish of risalamande, even after they have already devoured a large Christmas dinner.
