Readers of this blog who are also wine drinkers will no doubt already be aware of the love affair my wife and I have with Montezuma Winery. In a region dripping with wines – and good ones, too – Montezuma steps outside the norm to offer fruit wines and blends that really please the palette. Among my favourites is their Golden Delicious apple wine, “a few” bottles of which we picked up this summer, and one of which we opened this evening.
Mmm. . . Well, it’s delicious.
Here’s a tip for those of you not familiar with fruit wines other than of the grape variety: more than any other type of fermentation, in order to enjoy non-grape fruit wines, the key is to let the booze breathe a little. I have read somewhere that the process of separating the yeast from the fruit is something not entirely mastered by really any producers, and that the variance of techniques is probably the single-greatest contributor to the variance in taste among them.
With the Golden Delicious they’re putting out this year, there is no question that breathing the wine is essential. More so, I am thinking, than last year’s vintage. Don’t bother breathing it in the bottle, though: despite the number of people who insist on doing this, the volume of drink compared to the tiny hole at the top of the bottle means that it could take hours to do the job. Pour the wine into your glass, preferably a red wine glass with a nice, wide top, and give it five minutes or so to mellow.
Once that’s been done, you’re gonna love Golden Delicious. It’s got a nice, open and uncomplicated taste to it that is heavy on the simple sugars. The rounded taste is similar to meads, with that satisfying weight that’s not too heavy. I’ve often said that apple wine gives you the sense of satiation that is lacking in white wines without the “extra baggage” of drinking a red like Merlot.
So, yeah. You might want to think about taking a ride out to the Cayuga Wine Country before the weather really starts to suck so you can pick up a bottle or three of this rockin’ little drink.
