July 9 2010
A recent Wall Street Journal article suggested that the American palate is evolving toward more intense and exotic taste sensations – “adrenaline cuisine” as the author dubbed the phenomenon. While one might consider this trend validation for the popularity of “big wine” over a more refined style, more interesting, however, is how new taste sensations make their way into wine tasting notes.
Consider the pomegranate, for example.
Over twenty-five years ago, my social studies teacher brought a pomegranate to class as a part of a Native American Indian diet lesson. She was careful to peel the foreign-looking fruit, and then gently pull out the delicate juicy nubs, divvying up the small kernels while admonishing us to not get any of the staining juice on our shirts. This was the first—and last—time I saw the pomegranate until the early 2000s when scientific research surfaced touting the fruit’s antioxidant properties.
Then, in 2002, an opportunistic California company resurrected the nationally moribund pomegranate industry, creating Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice. A trend was ignited, and soon an entire industry sprang up around the use of the pomegranate in all manner of edibles.
This anecdote would be germane to little more than observation were it not for the preponderance of pomegranate references in contemporary wine tasting notes … tasting notes that, coincidentally, started immediately after the introduction of Pom Wonderful in 2002.
To test my hunch that so-called “adrenaline cuisine” influences wine tasting descriptors, I conducted an analysis of Wine Spectator’s ratings database, comprising 232,000 reviews and tasting notes dating back to the mid-80s.
A search of the WS review database retrieved 546 wine reviews with “pomegranate” as a tasting note descriptor. Wouldn’t you know it, but of those 546 wine reviews, a mere nine pomegranate references occurred in vintages released to market prior to 2002 — the year, again, that Pom Wonderful launched.
Coincidence? Surely not. However, it’s not necessarily a conspiracy, either. Rather, it’s a statement about the evolution of our palates: we taste flavor components in wine based on what our palates know, and prior to 2002 not many people knew the taste of a pomegranate.
Aside from the pomegranate, The Wall Street Journal article caused me to wonder about the next big flavor in wine tasting notes. After all, before the Asian food aisle at the grocery store expanded beyond chop suey, nobody used “lychee” to describe Gewürztraminer, either.
I conducted fruit trend research to determine what might be the next pomegranate or lychee in our tasting notes.
Fruit trends come to market via three channels:
• Niche health foods and juices
• The produce aisle
• Flavorings for mass market foods
You can find examples for each that don’t necessarily cross over to the other. Goji berries and the mangosteen live in the health food section. Star fruit lives in the produce aisle and dragon fruit primarily exists in processed flavorings.
While the wine taster is influenced by new flavors that crossover to the wine palate, it seems that we pick up most of our influences from whole foods. A dragon fruit flavored chewing gum does not a wine descriptor make. Nor does a super food juice drink from the likes of the noni tree or the goji berry.
So, I’d postulate that the best predictor of new flavors in tasting notes is the fruit in the produce section. A glance at the California Rare Fruit Growers web site and additional research analyzing yield, perishability and distribution to supermarkets suggests two upcoming fruits the wine enthusiast should taste:
Cherimoya: Soft scoopable white flesh tastes like a blend of pineapple, mango, and banana with a tinge of strawberry.
Star fruit: Slice and eat, or eat out of hand like an apple. Very subtle. Tastes like a plum with subtle tropical hints.
In short, a new taste sensation—even one super-charged by marketing hype or made into a processed confection—doesn’t necessarily translate to a desire for bigger flavors in wines. But these new influences do broaden our taste sensations and pique our interest in the fruits that inspire them.
So, go get a cherimoya and remain mindful that the next decade’s wine tasting note reference point, equivalent to a pomegranate, is likely in a produce section near you.
Posted in, Good Grape Daily: Pomace & Lees. Permalink | Comments (13) |
Just this week I ran across guanabana in a review of a Wakefield Promised Land Chardonnay, new to me but a fruit with flavors of strawberry and pineapple, sour citrus notes contrasting with underlying creaminess of coconut & banana. Who knew? Spiky lookin’ green fruit also called soursop but somehow I’m betting that descriptor doesn’t catch on….
Love the cherimoya…have enjoyed as many as I could each time we’ve gone to visit my wife’s family in Chile…simply delicious and texture is sublime. Last time I saw one up here is cost about $5…that would buy you kilos of them down there. They are VERY tender when ripe and I can only guess at the shipping implications.
Thanks for the comments and observations.
Jim - the guanabana—new on me, but speaks to the timeliness of the post, I suppose. I always chuckle at “pain grille” instead of toast, I should note.
Todd—the Cherimoya is tasty. I understand its ripening is similar to the avocado—when it’s ready, it’s ready.
“In grade school over twenty-five years ago, my social studies teacher brought a pomegranate to class as a part of a Native American Indian diet lesson.”
I’m really curious as to what part a Middle Eastern fruit introduced to America in the late 18th century had to do with Native American diets. I’m not arguing with you here, I’m wondering what the teacher was thinking.
You’re dead on with your analysis. I’m wondering when açai berry will show up. When I first started attending wine tastings, I always hated it when people referred to quince, gooseberry, lychee, etc., because although I’d tasted them (once), it really wasn’t much to go on for reference. What’s that one famous tasting note? “Wet monkey riding bareback on a sweaty horse”?
I’ve been guilty of this myself, though I try to avoid it as much as possible. I figure Meyer lemons are mainstream enough to reference; freshly chopped cactus leaves, maybe not.
It’s a good point, Benito.
I should track down Mrs. Lawler from 6th grade because I distinctly remember it being a Thanksgiving / Indian food lesson.
But, then, it was a catholic school, so historical accuracy is tenable.
Jeff
It’s no big deal and doesn’t take away from your point at all, I just found it amusing. Sort of like how people associate potatoes with Germany/Ireland and tomatoes with Italy when both came from the Americas.
You know how the Brits call a flashlight an electric torch? It came up in a short story in English class and, when a student asked, my 7th grade teacher explained that an electric torch was sort of like a roman candle: a metal tube that shoots out a stream of sparks so you can see in the dark.
You folks are way ahead of me. I’m still trying to figure out what “cassis” tastes like…
I think a good deal of it has to do with your ethnic background. As Sasha mentioned, if we are raised eating different fruit, we grow up with different flavor profiles that we assign to things. I’ve got no idea what the hell a gooseberry tastes like, but the guanabana Jim mentioned, as well as the star fruit (carambola), papaya, and mamoncillo were common flavors for me growing up in a Cuban family. In the end, it’s all very “relative”.
Great pice and an interesting look at wine trends. I’ll definitely be paying more attention to what shows up at my local market.
Does raise an interesting question though - if Pom contributed so much to the rise of pomegranate in tasting notes, I wonder if people actually picked up real pomegranate aromas and tastes or if the fruit was top of mind enough that it drove people to believe it was there. I’m always very curious about how people pick up on different elements in wine and how they got there.
Philippines is a tropical country and the fruits back there are way diverse than here in the US. Is it guanabana or guyabano? Cheers!
Mart….it’s both…it’s where you’re from that will determine what you call it. Just like star fruit = carambola.
Oh thanks Katie for clarifying. I got mixed up on that one. Cheers!
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Great piece! The best taster I know is from the Philippines. When she came to the US, she had a hard time ID’ing all the berry flavors, but tropical notes were a breeze. She trained herself by tasting all kinds of berries, jams, etc. and she said it really helped hone her palate. Not just on those particular flavors, but across the board.