The fruit wines of the Elephant Island Winery

Wine or not wine?

Perhaps we should pose the question differently. Perhaps, it should be put as, is an alcoholic beverage made of fruit other than grape, wine or not wine? But wait! Why stop there? Let’s make this more interesting! Why is the grape wine, which had alcohol added to it, called fortified wine, but the alcohol-fortified fruit wine called a liqueur? 

If these questions make your head spin, we don’t blame you. Let’s untangle them one by one. 

Both grape and non-grape wines are fermented beverages made of a fruit juice base. Irrespective of the fruit used, the basic steps to make the wine are the same and include fruit must extraction, fruit must fermentation, conditioning and conservation, and finally, aging. Fermentation is done using yeast to ferment the must. To make red wines and some white wines, winemakers may also use malolactic fermentation. Arguably, malolactic fermentation significantly affects the flavour and stability of a wine.

Wine aging is where the processes start to differ. Unlike regular grape wines, fruit wines do not benefit from aging, especially in wood barrels. Curios why we singled out the wood barrels? We did that because aging of wine in the wood barrels, is the way you get those toasty, creamy, and oaky notes in your favourite wine.

We have yet to hear about the winemaker who dares to age their fruit wines in oak. There! Feel free to start snickering whenever you hear someone talk about “oaky notes” in their fruit wines.
Bottom line, and a drum roll, please!

All of these beverages, no matter the fruit, are wines!

Fortified wine or Liqueur?

If you read our previous posts, you know we have a “thing” about fortified Madeira wine. You may also know about the wine known as Port. Both these wines require wine alcohol to be added to the must. The result is a wine with an alcohol content of about 20%. It is referred to as fortified wine.

It is also common to have alcohol added to fruit wine. However, the resulting beverage is known as Liqueur or Crème de fruits. You may have heard about Crème de cassis or other similarly named beverages. All of these are referred to as liqueur. In our opinion, it is a misnomer. While Crème de cassis sounds fancy, it is still a fortified wine made of black currant.

Storage of fruit wines

While it is true that most wines improve with age, this rule doesn’t apply to fruit wines.

The general consensus is that most fruit wines should be consumed within a maximum of two years. Raspberry wine is better when consumed within its first year as the fruit flavour tends to fade faster.

What throws a giant monkey wrench into the works is that two of the three wines we tested are fortified. When you consider a well-known fortified wine, such as port, it is supposed to last for at least a decade. Madeira fortified wine supposedly lasts forever. However, unlike these fortified wines, our fruit wines are not aged in oak. Our opinion: Consume the fortified fruit wine within a maximum of three years from the date of bottling.

To decant or not to decant, that is a question

Decanting is primarily used to separate the wine from its sediment before drinking. Decanting also lets the wine “breathe” to speed up wine oxidization and evaporation. It is believed that by doing so, the more favourable aromas of tightly wound wines will develop faster and make the wine more enjoyable.

The wines we describe in this post are all fruit wines. Their oxidization will only result in the fading of the fruit. We did not decant any of the three wines, and we do not recommend you do it either.

Elephant Island Cassis 2021

Wine tasting notes

Cassis or Blackcurrant fortified wine is originally a French invention dating back to the 19th century. It is made of 100% black currant juice.

It is said that at some point, Cassis was used as a medicine. If that is medicine, count us sick any day!

We drank this wine in 2022.

In simple terms, it was absolutely delicious.

This wine has the highest alcohol content of all three wines that we tested. If properly cellared, it should retain its flavour for about three years. The problem is, this wine is so good that you will likely finish your entire stash in less than a year. Due to its high alcohol volume, once opened, this wine should keep for up to four weeks in the fridge. We could not validate this assumption because the content of our only bottle was gone in less than two days.

Food pairing recommendations

• This wine is a dessert wine. It should be paired with dessert dishes and cheeses. We found that this wine works best with plain New York style cheesecake.
• When it comes to cheeses, pair it with fresh goat cheese – plain or honey-flavoured chèvre.
• While not exactly a food pairing, Cassis can be mixed with sparkling wine to make a version of the Kir Royale cocktail.

Elephant Island Framboise 2021

Wine tasting notes

This is another quality fortified wine by the Elephant Island winery. It is made with 100% raspberry fruit juice.

We drank Framboise in 2022. While we liked it less than Cassis, it was never the less delicious. Just like Cassis, once opened, this wine should keep in a fridge for up to four weeks. Our open bottle of Framboise was in the fridge for three weeks. There was no sign of flavour profile deterioration by the end of the third week when we finished this wine.

Food pairing recommendations

We found a perfect pairing for this wine by pure accident. The idea was to find a food pairing to go with a bottle of the Madeira wine we had on hand. We figured if we made a Tiramisu cake with plenty of Madeira wine, the food pairing would work. Boy, did we get that wrong! The pairing was horrid, but we loved the cake.

It just so happened that at the same time, we had an open bottle of Elephant Island Framboise 2021 sitting in the fridge. We figured we had nothing to lose and found a winner! It is amazing how this combination amplifies raspberry perfume in the wine. A bit of tartness on the finish is only helping the overall experience.

Elephant Island Blackcurrant 2021

Wine tasting notes

This is a table fruit wine by the Elephant Island winery. It is made with 100% black currents.

We drank this wine in 2022. An open bottle of this wine set in our fridge for four days. It was a bit “flat” on day three. It showed further signs of degradation on day four. In our opinion, this wine is best consumed on the day when it is opened or next day after opening.

Food pairing recommendations

We were not quite sure how to pair this wine with food. We took our cues from the Elephant Island winery and paired it with lamb. We made two lamb dishes that both proved to be a success.

• For your food pairing with this wine, consider a rack of lamb grilled with root vegetables.
• Middle Eastern lamb keftas, served alongside the roasted red beets and arugula salad, made another good food pairing. Not perfect ten, but satisfactory.