The Back Story:
I’m generally not a fan of fruit wine. In the offhand chance that a fruit wine producer gets it right, the result is so syrupy and massive that it makes it very impractical for even a small crowd of people to consume a 750ml bottle. Generally, I treat these as very situational dessert wines, maybe a component of sangria, something that requires either a hefty dose of chocolate or a much less condensed wine to cut through the flavor.
One fruit wine I’d never had before, though, was pomegranate. Enter a sample I received from Tree of Life.
Pomegranate is one of those trendy fruits that seems to find its way into a variety of concoctions, from fruit juices and mixed drinks to gourmet food and desserts. Much has been made of its health benefits, including antioxidants and the body’s rapid and positive response to its nutrients. Much has also been made of red wine’s health benefits, but pomegranate far and away dominates in those regards.
So what would happen if we combined the two? We get the benefits of consuming alcohol in tandem with the benefits of consuming pomegranate. You can do the math from there. The only thing that truly matters on this blog, though, is how it tastes.
The Results:
The translucency and purity of this wine is absolutely phenomenal
The appearance of the wine is a black cherry color with a bright purple, very pure translucency. Though I feared the wine, labeled semisweet, might be syrupy thick, it has a very traditional wine-like pour.
The nose of the wine is a very rich pomegranate scent with a delicately sweet quality. There is a very slight vinegary scent, almost imperceptible, but it is there. The alcohol, at 12%, is undetectable.
The mouth feel of the wine is surprisingly thin. It has the consistency of a lighter red wine, like a Beaujolais, but it has a very full texture. While I wouldn’t describe it as velvety, it does coat the mouth rather nicely. In texture and body, I would say it best compares to a glass of cranberry juice.
The flavor of the wine is a very basic, fairly pure pomegranate flavor, neither artificial-tasting nor overpowering. It doesn’t taste bitter, rotten, or cloying, as fruit wines often do, and the alcohol doesn’t contribute a bite to it. The flavor derives a certain dry acidity from its fruit, giving it a bit of structure that you can feel in your jaw. The flavor lingers on the tongue as well, a very pleasant way to end the sip.
I tried it both chilled and warm, with and without food. It pairs extremely well with a variety of flavors, from spice to more delicate fare. While I prefer it chilled, myself, it is just as enjoyable at room temperature.
For the Casual Drinker:
This wine, as best as I can equate it, is like drinking a pomegranate martini. It’s sweet, not syrupy, acidic, not dry, bold, flavorful, and very lacking in alcohol flavor. It’s a wine that would drink equally as well from a cocktail glass, martini glass, wine glass, with or or without ice, and with or without fruit. While the palate might be a bit too simple for experienced wine drinkers, the flavors certainly do not disappoint. 6/10
In Case You Missed It:
Wine: Semi-Sweet Kosher Pomegranate Wine
Producer: Tree Of Life
Region: Armenia
Varietal(s): n/a (Pomegranate)
Vintage: n/a
Residual Sugar: unknown
Alcohol: 12%
pH: unknown
Price: $11.99
Purchased at: Received free as an industry sample, available at http://drinktreeoflife.com
To be honest, I swore up and down that I despised dark beer. I thought it was ludicrous that people would drink a high calorie brew that tasted like liquid bread… getting drunk shouldn’t be so suffocatingly thick! On one of my off nights, I decided to head into work and get a beer while I did some reading for next semester’s class. I decided to give one of the non-cheap beers a try, and went with a
Colorado, most famous for brewing the beer that tastes 
Great Divide is one that won my heart after I tasted their Espresso Yeti. The world has seen numerous infused beers before, what with the chocolate stouts, espresso amber ales, and framboise lambics of the world, yet few of such beers that I’ve tried have attained a synergy in their flavor quite like the Yeti. The attention to detail and patience in the brewing pays off with a flawless transition from beer to coffee flavors, and ever since experiencing that, I’ve been itching to try more.
When I was browsing the beer selection at A Southern Season, a gourmet shop here in the Triangle, I came across a few of Great Divide’s product that I hadn’t seen elsewhere. Anyone who has been reading my blog for awhile knows that I’m a fiend for IPAs, and when I noticed that Great Divide’s Titan IPA was on the shelf, I just had to add it to the week’s beer schedule. It’s actually a struggle to only choose one beer to represent Colorado for this post, as I have several favorites among these breweries. Dale’s Pale Ale from Oskar Blues, the best beer I’ve ever had from a can, was a strong contender, as were several of New Belgium’s products. Of course, I CAN always review those later…
