Now that 2009 has drawn to a close, looking back at the year that was tends to be a natural thing to do.
I have enjoyed a lot of fruit wines in the past year and although most of them were great, there are a few of them that really stood out and for me exemplified the direction that quality fruit wines are taking in the industry and are paving the way for even more interesting developments in the years to come for the fruit wine industry.
Here are the wines that really stood out for me this year:
Southbrook Farms Cassis – An old favorite and the perfect dessert wine, wine to have with chocolate or “Kir” ingredient.
Forbidden Fruit Wines “Caught” Apricot Mistelle – The epitome of elegance and decadence that can be found in a bottle.
Silk Scarf Winery Cherry Wine- Lovely wine that that expresses the Okanagan terroir.
Radee Passion Fruit Wine– Unique and very special wine from Thailand’s best tropical fruit.
Grand Pre Stutz Cider – I am a fussy cider drinker and this is truly the best cider I have ever had.
Field Stone Fruit Wines Strawberry-Rhubarb – Best wine to have on the patio on a hot summer’s day? This is it!
The above wines for me represent really excellent wines that I enjoy on a regular basis and for me define the way the industry is going.
To be fair, I must say that there are a lot of good if not excellent fruit wines I have tasted from many parts of the world that are not on this list, I could list hundreds but I decided to narrow this down to only six wines. Most of them in Canada as it is where I live and these are the wines I tasted more often. In future posts, I will write more about the fruit wines of Europe and the USA, as this is a region that I have not focused on enough. This is one of my goals and any out there who have stories or great recommendations on fruit wines made either in the USA or Europe, send them over and I will make sure to write about it.
I wish all my readers a great New Year and certainly looking forward to making, tasting more excellent fruit wines as well as seeing developments in the world of fruit wines.