Fabulous fruit wines for an alternative tipple

Grapes are traditionally the expected defining ingredient in wine. It is the fruit that people used for making wine for thousands of years and tradition will likely go on as long as there are people on earth.

However, that doesn’t mean that wine is made exclusively from grapes. On the contrary, wine can be also made from many other fruits, from berries to citrus fruits, and pretty much anything in between.

Here we will look at some of the most popular fruit wines in the world. Each of them has something special about it, and each of them is unique.

Pineapple Wine Maui Blanc

Don’t be repelled by the label signing that says “caramel color”; simply close your eyes for a moment and keep an open mind. It is the best wine from a Hawaiian fruit wine manufacturer that has been in this business for almost four decades now. The Maui Blanc is their flagship wine and if you give it a chance it can be a delightful surprise. The wine tastes like pineapple juice, but it feels drier and it’s lighter in body. It’s best served with creamy cheeses or roast pork.

Cherry Wine (Chateau Fontaine)

This type of wine is made of sour yellow and dark cherries grown in Lake Leelanau’s Chateau Fontain, in the state of Michigan. They produce around 1,000 cases each year and each year they manage to sell every bottle of their cherry wine. This cherry wine is best served chilled and goes perfectly with barbecue.

Apple Wines from Bishop’s Orchard

For almost a decade now, Keith Bishop has been successfully making apple wines that are loved by an army of loyal consumers. The base is his 150-year-old farm in Guilford, Connecticut. So far, he has experimented with various styles, but his greatest hit is his Stone House White. According to him, and many people that have tried it, this apple wine is pretty close to Chardonnay. The only downside is that if you want to give it a taste, you need to take a road trip to Connecticut as Bishop doesn’t have any distributors, nor ships out in other States.

Peach Wine by Carlson Vineyards

Palisade, Colorado is famous for its many vineyards. However, it is also known for its excellent beaches. Parker Carlson has been growing peaches on his farm since 1988 and has been committed to capturing the peaches’ essence in a bottle. The idea of other fruit winemakers like Garett Portra, is to replicate the experience of eating what they think is the best fruit in the world.

Peach wine is delicately juicy, feels fresh, and has a crispy floral note embedded in it. Carlson’s peach wine is available through their online shops, as well as retail distribution available in Wisconsin and Colorado.

Plum Wine

Plum wine is mainly produced in Korea, Japan, and China. This wine is made with distilled liquor which is later soaked with plum. On average, it has higher alcohol levels than most other fruit wines that are fermented with only fruits. In China, the plum wine is known as Meiji, in Koreas as Maesil-Ju, while in Japan as Umeshu. Plum wine is produced under various brands like Seoljungmae, Matchsoon, and Mae Hwa Soo.

White River Orange Wine

Orange Wine is not that popular and is not commercially available widely. White River in South Africa is one of the rare producers of Orange Wine in the world. Its taste is similar to a light-bodied wine and golden or pale in color. There aren’t many recipes on orange wine and the outcome largely depends on the yeast used.

One of the reasons why there aren’t that many orange wine manufacturers is that it can be very challenging to make it. The reason is because the orange is very acidic and it is quite a challenge to adjust its pH values. Plus, sometimes there is an issue with the Penicillium mold. If it appears it can potentially spoil the wine by stopping the fermentation. To prevent that, the producer must thoroughly sanitize and clean the oranges. If those parts of the process are completed with care and attention, everything else is relatively easy and straightforward.

Dandelion Wine

This is also quite rare fruit wine, but one with a unique and exceptional taste. Dandelion wine contains a moderate level of alcohol. This fruit wine is made of dandelion petals, sugar, and some type of acid (in most recipes it’s lemon juice). Dandelion wine is also known for its health benefits as it is very nutritious, can help manage sugar levels, is rich in antioxidants, may reduce cholesterol, and may lower blood pressure. Commercially, it is made only by several breweries like the Bellview Winery of New Jersey, Maple River Winery of North Dakota, Hidden Legend Winery of Montana, and so on.

Outside of these, you can also find some incredible alternative fruit wines (such as blueberry wine, which we’ve written about before) and even some unusual blended fruit wines. While these may not be the standard “go-to” for a typical wine drinker,  you should definitely give them a try at some point!