In the past couple of years, pomegranate juice has skyrocketed in popularity – thank you POM. And while a splash of pomegranate made Shirley Temples so sweet, pomegranate really never found its place in sophisticated drinks. Until now, that is.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Isreal’s Rimon Winery brings us its Pomegranate Dessert Wine, (2004 vintage). According to the winery’s PR notes, this is the only sweet wine made from 100% pomegranate juice – no added sugar – in the world. (A Google search turned up recipes and stories of pomegranate home brews, but not a single other pomegranate dessert wine for sale – certainly, it is the first pomegranate wine I have ever tried).
The wine, a sweet red, is more subtly sweet than a late harvest zinfandel but offers a slightly more medicinal sweetness than a typical grape-made dessert wine. The wine’s most alluring attribute is a finish that is clean, fresh and slightly bitter, (that pleasing bitterness of citrus zest) and, for a split second, echoes the taste of biting a fresh pomegranate kernel. Is the wine something I’m jumping to drink every day? No – but then, pomegranate juice is not really my thing either. However, I think pomegranate lovers will be blown away, pairing this with bittersweet chocolate for a sexy, Valentine dessert.
As readers of my Aphrodisiac of the Month newsletter know, pomegranates offer a wealth of folkloric history as well as nutritive properties making the crimson fruit a potent aphrodisiac. Used as a culinary symbol of Goddess Aphrodite by the ancient Greeks, we now know that in addition to helping lower blood pressure, pomegranates contain the female hormone estrogen. For more on the aphrodisiac properties of pomegranates, visit our aphrodisiac library, eatsomethingsexy.com/aphrodisiac/pomegranate.htm.
Rimon Winery’s Chocolate Pomegranate Truffle Recipe (made with Rimon Pomegranate Dessert Wine)
