The first pertained to problems of marketing those products in the United States (and probably much of Europe as well). The non-domestic non-grape wines would get classed as “novelty wines” because the big distributors, who control the marketing side of things in most of the 50 states, would see to it that they did not get prime shelf location. Sittiing in a corner, they would collect dust and go bad — I have seen this happen many times.

The second point you raise regarding table wines is also keenly accurate, but irrelevant if biases rule the table. I wrote once about the best pairing I ever had was at a family holiday meal in which I paired a mangosteen wine I made with turkey and an orange mead with apricot-glazed ham. But the average person in the United States would never think of serving either even if they had them on hand. They would probably pair a Chardonnay (God forbid!) with the turkey and possibly a white Zinfandel or White Merlot with the ham. They have been brainwashed into accepting what Napa is pushing and just don’t think “outside the box.” But I wish they did….

Most respectfully,

Jack Keller

Just a comment on your entry of October 6th. I agree with most of your statements except for the shelf life of fruit wines. We are one of ten commercial fruit wineries in this region of Australia. (Its too wet for grapes to grow).

All wines correctly made will keep on the shelf or in the cellar for at least 2 to 3 years without problems. Most grapes are a relatively bland fruit and contain relatively low levels of the natural preservatives whilst many other fruits are much bigger in the flavour department and appear to have many more of these natural preservatives. The fruits we and the other commercial fruit wineries use are the bigger flavour types e.g. Mango, Lychee, most of the citrus, Pineapple, Papaya (Paw Paw in the Pacific region), Jaboticaba and there are many more. When a bottle is opened and not finished, it can then be placed in the fridge and will still be the same after 3 weeks, grape wine (not fortifieds) will be past its best after 4 to 6 days. It should be noted that we need much less sulphur preservative because of this and have never had reports of allergic reactions.

The other point you made regarding wines for the dinner table needs a response also. Most grape wine don’t taste of grapes because grapes are a relatively bland fruit (mostly sugar) but wine made from bigger flavoured fruit carry the fruit flavour into the wines. So that if you have a wine with a distinct fruit flavour it can be a superior wine to match with most foods. We also have a grape wine cellar but would very rarely have a grape wine with food because other fruit wine becomes a better match.

Please consider the above to be information rather than a defensive reaction. I enjoy reading your responses to the many interesting questions you receive.

Cheers,

Tony Woodall.