DRY COUNTY WINE REVIEW: SPICY TOMATO WINE.
Tomatoes are technically a fruit, but more-often used like a vegetable: tomato cake, tomato pie... these words do not frequent our dessert menus. So despite their status as a fruit, tomatoes are typically used like a vegetable, and typically taste like a vegetable. That is, however, with a few exceptions: most notably the labor-intensive yet sweet and refreshing Sun Gold cherry tomato. And, if it tastes like a fruit I say use it like a fruit. Since I am no baker, when we had a glut of these tasty gems this summer I didn't turn them into dessert––they went straight into the fermentation vat like so many fruits before them.The first time I marinated a lamb roast in kimchi brine (to great, flavorful success I might add), I started working on the idea of savory wines for cooking. I pondered the idea of cucumber wines for fish, herbal wines for sauces, and the most versatile of all, tomato wine for everything. Anything. With an opportunity to make tomato wine for the first time this summer, I was taking a chance by making a cooking wine, knowingly forfeiting any chance I had for a truly interesting drinking wine. Since I had prepared the wine with cooking in mind, in with the tomatoes went habanero peppers and garlic––exactly why I feared it would not be a great drinking wine. In a sense, I was trying to make a spicy salsa wine––all I was missing was cilantro. Immediately after active fermentation but before I put it into the carboy, what I had tasted was like a fresh, sparkling bloody mary. It was surprisingly tasty, and why wouldn't it be?––tomatoes are a fruit and fruits make wines. No bother, I didn't let it become a distraction––my goal was to make cooking wine, so I shoved a few more habaneros in the carboy. If you could drink it after that, I would consider it a bonus. Yesterday, four months after bottling, was my first chance to test the results. With a few pork chops we'd acquired from Bugtussle Farm (and from the pigs we'd raised this summer), I set them to marinade for six hours before searing them (though I would have preferred twelve hours). After searing, I deglazed the pan with the wine for a sauce and mashed some sweet potatoes, topping it all off with sautéed swiss chard. I was beyond pleased with the outcome, the pork was juicy and spicy from the inside out, but now feel compelled to go further. The wine was drinkable but not exactly pleasurable (akin to the pawpaw wine). Beyond turning the rest of the bottle into spicy tomato wine vinegar, I see a lot of other savory wines in my future. And not just for cooking. With a little honey for chapitlzation this could have been a perfectly drinkable wine. The thing about wine is that it simply needs a certain sugar level (or brix) to become palatable, and with a mixture of honey and fruit, vegetable or tomato it can be made out of anything. Cucumber mint, hot pepper basil, sweet pepper curry––winemaking is the new cooking.- Jesse.
