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From the article: > What’s the biggest misunderstanding about fruit wines? > That it’s gotta be sweet. No matter what our tasting menu says, no matter what I
by quadrifoliate 4y ago
From the article:
> What’s the biggest misunderstanding about fruit wines?
> That it’s gotta be sweet. No matter what our tasting menu says, no matter what I say, people always comment, “Oh, it’s not sweet.” And I think, “Well no, I wasn’t lying to you.”
This is a large part of the problem, I think.
Non-grape "wines" are not going to succeed anywhere other than the US. Other countries have a ton of culture built around grape wine, or just use fruit to brew brandy or moonshine. No one in France is going to start making Chateau d'Prune 2022.
Brewing fruit wine in the the US has a reasonable chance of succeeding, but Americans don't really like drinks that are not sweet. They tolerate wine because it is seen as culturally refined due to a lot of marketing.
Sweet or semi-sweet wine made from fruits and marketed properly has a chance to substantially impact the American grape wine market.
- LargoLasskhyfv 4y agoOh! Really? [Standard] https://katlenburger.de/ https://katlenburger.de/ [Organic] https://en.franz-stettner.com/ https://en.franz-stettner.com/ Cheers.
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago> Americans don't really like drinks that are not sweet Huh? How you explain the insane popularity of beer?
- justsomehnguy 4y agoEh? Give someone, who drinks only lagers, anything with IBU > 35 and they would cry why it is so bitter. I don't know how it tastes for you, bu the most common mainstream beers (ie lagers in some form) are pretty sweet. Belgian? Holy fucking sweet. IPA? Depends. APA? Sweet. Not the soda sweet, but sweet, compared to the plain water.
- 01100011 4y agoSweetness of the finished product is up to the maker. End fermentation early, have more unfermentable sugars, or just add sweetener after fermentation and you have a sweeter wine. You can also choose yeasts that finish earlier. Use an aggressive yeast like champagne yeast and let it run to completion and the product is dryer. I agree though, most Americans expect fruit wines to be sweet.
- jeffbee 4y agoI thought the article was saying that the people expected it to be sweet, not that they wanted it to be.
- quadrifoliate 4y agoIt is, but why comment on sweetness if you have an "expected" taste from wine, whether it's grape or blueberries? Anyone who orders wine should be expecting it to be mostly sour (or dry to use wine terminology), unless it's explicitly labeled as a dessert or fortified wine. My hypothesis is that it's because they like the sweeter taste, and are unpleasantly surprised when the taste is very similar to the sour one of grape wine; when they were expecting something more like blueberry juice with an alcoholic kick. It's possible that my hypothesis is overreaching. Testing it would involve a blind test with regular and sweet blueberry wines.
- seszett 4y ago> No one in France is going to start making Chateau d'Prune 2022. Fruit alcohol is quite common in France, especially from plums, but it's not called wine and the necessary added sugar (necessary with all fruits besides grapes) makes it a less "noble" product. These alcohols are becoming less and less common today.
- quadrifoliate 4y ago> These alcohols are becoming less and less common today. Could you link me to an example? The only thing I found is vieille prune, which is a distilled brandy, and covered in my comment.
- goto11 4y agoCider have a long history in France though. I think it is more of a US thing to discount non-grape wine as novelties.