The surprisingly awesome blackberry fruit wine

In some respects ‘surprisingly’ is probably a word that shouldn’t be used in the title of this blog post. The winemaker, Simon Jeggo, a frequent visitor to Curious Wines and now plying his trade at Dungarvan Brewing Company, regularly left us samples from his batches of fruit wine that he made at home. All of his wines have been really good, some almost too drinkable, but I think his latest one is the best yet.

The aptly named Blackberry Wine, pictured, was ‘harvested’ in 2011 and I’m assuming bottled winter 2012 (correct me if I’m wrong, Simon!). At 11% (ish) this isn’t one for the baby’s bottle. The colour is whacky. An orangey, bronzy, raspberry red, it is quite light, like something between a Provence rosé and a young Beaujolais. For me, it smells of blackberry jam (go figure) with an almost honeyed sweetness in the background. On the palate, it is distinctly medium sweet with an intense red and dark fruit hit.

I’m all for “garage winemaking”, this stuff is simply impossible not to like. I could happily sip away on a summer’s afternoon. Credit and thanks to the man himself for allowing us a bottle of his prized ‘fruit juice with a kick’. It’s actually a very professional job, with whatever filtration process used producing what you would expect with any commercial wine. He’s certainly captured the best of the blackberry variety!

If you have any specific questions on the winemaking process for fruit wines, or the brewing of artisan beer, feel free to leave a comment below and I’m sure Simon would be happy to respond.