Sweet and fruit heavy (more than just forward).
Call that cooked if you like, but that seems generally meaningless like viscosity (outside of dessert wine).
It’s all mouth feel like the difference between eating fresh strawberries and strawberry jam/preserves.
“jammy” == “like jam”
Whether that’s positive or negative to you depends entirely on whether you like the flavor of jam; or, more particularly, whether you like the flavor of jam in wine. Lots of over-thinking going on in this thread.
+1, I find some of the 09 Burgs jammy that is sweet big and juicy but not stewed.
Rombauer Zin description [from their website]:
2009 NAPA VALLEY ZINFANDEL 750ML
Dark ruby color; rich, ripe aromas of boysenberry, raspberry and nuances of vanilla. Robust, jammy wildberry fruit flavors frame this luscious and velvety wine. Subtle tannins offer a fruit forward finish. Our favorite pairings for this wine include leg of lamb, BBQ ribs and dark chocolate.
But isn’t there a picture of Rombauer Zin next to “jammy” in the dictionary?
Bingo. It would never occur to me to consider whether the fruit was cooked or not if it was jammy. If it smells or tastes like cooked fruit I say so.
The first time I used the word “jammy” in reference to wine was way back in the '70’s, long before I was reading, writing, or paying attention to tasting notes. It was, of course, describing an Australian Shiraz. I’ve learned since that there are Aussie wines that are not jammy, but it is still my reference for the term. Dollop of jam, Aussie Shiraz, identical aroma. As a matter of fact, I opened a 2004 Schild Shiraz the other night that I had bought out of curiosity after it became a WS forum joke. Same jam as always. Luckily I had opened it for an undiscerning crowd in lieu of a dessert wine.
I don’t think of ripe forward fruit as necessarily being jammy. Loring wines, for instance, have intense ripe fruit, but it is fresh fruit, not in the least cooked. That to me is not jammy.
P Hickner
Well, no. What happens when you cook strawberries is the same thing that happens when you pick late or ferment hot. The more volatile aromatic compounds are lost. This happens before any other chemical changes due to cooking or hang time. On a palate map the loss is the higher notes, leaving just lower notes.
The mouth feel is coincidental. The main cause of a heavier mouth feel in a wine is a higher alcohol content. That’s two different results of picking late. But I’ve had Cabernet Franc Ice Wine, for example, that had a very heavy mouth fell and a very light, fresh and bright strawberry taste. “Jammy” would be a very wrong descriptor for that wine.
It doesn’t need to occur to you. If it tastes like jam it is technically similar/equivalent to fruit that has been moderately cooked. If it tastes cooked (or stewed) to you, then it is akin to fruit that has been severely cooked. One wouldn’t intentionally overcook a jam.