Look Out! Fruit Bombs!

Posted on by fratellospirito

Hello My Friends,

Today I will be talking about something lesser known these days in the spirits world, the existence of the “Fruit Bomb Wine” and how it can affect your meal. Now you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t think I’ve had a wine like that.” However, I can guarantee you that you have. So what is a so-called Fruit Bomb?

A Fruit Bomb Wine is something I had always known about in terms of taste but I hadn’t really understood the full affects they had on your palette. Even the term “Fruit Bomb Wine” wasn’t even in my vocabulary until a few weeks ago when I had a great discussion with a clerk at a local liquor store. Yeah, those guys who always ask you if you need help when you’re browsing? Remember folks it’s okay to ask for help! You never know when you will learn something new. Essentially a “Fruit Bomb Wine” is a wine that has an alcohol rating that is much higher than the normal output of wine, typically hovering around 16 – 20%. Now if you have ever set foot in a liquor store, wine shop, or even grocery store with a decent liquor section you will have seen a little tag either on the bottle of wine or somewhere near it talking about how many points it scored during such and such competition. Higher point values typically mean a more flavorful wine or more dollars that will be leaving your pocket. Unfortunately these two things don’t always coincide. Now the thing that most people don’t realize is that while the wine may have received a great deal of points in a competition it may not be the most suitable to put on your dinner table when you have wonderfully tasting food. Why you might ask? It’s simple: these wines were designed to win contests. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good “Fruit Bomb”, Cabernets, Cuvees, and Zinfandels are some of my favorite wines. But I never realized until a few weeks ago, how heavily they may have been affecting that which I was eating.

When you drink a great bottle of wine, it is something to be savored, cherished, and remembered. But when you are eating a meal that you slaved over all day, carefully planning the tastes and the textures, you may be losing much of what you intended by pairing the meal with a “Fruit Bomb Wine”. This also applies when you are buying an assortment of food to have as your meal. So what makes one of these wines so risky while pairing with food? Basically the wine has a higher alcohol percentage because the grapes used to make the wine are on the vines longer and have a more intensified fermenting process. This allows for the flavors of the wine, whether they are fruits, spices, oak, or vanilla to triumphantly stand out. But when you drink this high alcohol content wine your tongue gets coated with not only the alcohol, but the flavors that it was meant to intensify, therefore affecting your perception of what you’re eating. This isn’t always a bad thing, I just feel like it should be something to be kept in the back of your mind when selecting a beverage for your meal. So the question is what would be a more subtle wine? Typically I like to stick with table wines that run in the 11 – 14% range. I find you still get the great flavor of the wine, but you do it without losing your meal.

What are some of your favorite kinds of wine to have with dinner? Or just to drink?

Good Spirits Folks!


 

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