What’s the one thing that instantly pops up in your mind when you hear about Mahabaleshwar? It’s bright, red strawberries! The hill station is inarguably famous for its juicy strawberries but did you know that it is home to one of India’s most unique brews – wines made from different kinds of berries, including strawberry! So, here’s us Team Unsobered spilling all the details you need to know about strawberry wine. Keep reading!
Strawberry Wine: Mahabaleshwar’s Most Unique Offering
Mahabaleshwar’s Unique Strawberries
First of all, did you know that strawberries are not actual berries?
The serene hill town of Mahabaleshwar is known for being one of India’s best destinations for strawberries as well as other similar berries. There are thousands of expansive orchards that grow hundreds and thousands of kilograms of berries every year. The strawberries used to make strawberry wine are fresh, hand-picked, and kept free of any pesticide exposure.
Ripe strawberries are plucked in the months of December to March and then sent out for further processing. As the strawberries are plucked fresh from the nearby fields, the products made from these ‘berries’ are of the freshest, highest quality.
Strawberry Wine: General Information About The Mahabaleshwar-Special Wine
The fruit wine takes its color from the vibrant pink and red hues of strawberries. The result? A beautiful pink-red color that instantly catches your eye! For the base, only the highest-quality grapes are used to ensure that the resultant wine is as sophisticated as possible.
Strawberry wine has an alcohol by volume (ABV) of about 11-12%, which is more than the ABV of many kinds of beer. It has an acidity of 0.7% to 0.8% and is an off-dry wine. An off-dry wine is perfect for those looking for a balance of sweetness and acidity in their wine. Strawberry wine is an off-dry wine that, with its perfect balance of sweet and acidic, can be consumed by women and youngsters as well. Now, let’s understand how it is served and how it tastes.
Strawberry Wine: Serving And Taste
To get the best flavors and experience while sipping the wine, make sure to serve the strawberry wine chilled at temperatures of around 8°C to 10°C. Serve the wine in a flute glass. The elongated stem of the flute glass prevents heat from our hands from interfering with the temperature of the wine.
Take a sip of the wine and your palate will be delighted with the sweetness of Mahabaleshwar’s handpicked strawberries. The wine’s fruity, slightly sweet but acidic flavors will definitely please anyone who’s looking for an off-dry wine made with the goodness of Mahabaleshwar’s strawberries.
How To Pair Strawberry Wine With Food
Strawberry wine, made almost entirely from strawberries, is slightly sweeter than many other wines in taste. To balance this sweetness, you can pair your strawberry wine with light, savory bites like pasta, salad, and kebabs. Strawberry wine also goes well with desserts like chocolate cake and pound cakes. As the strawberry wine is sweeter, it will pair well with food items like chocolate, nuts, whipped cream, grilled meat, lighter cheeses, and fruit salads.
Most fruit wines tend to match better with Asian and spicier food such as Indian cuisine. On the other hand, many grape wines, especially red wines, match better with typical Western cuisine.
Difference Between Fruit Wine And Grape Wine
You must be wondering what makes fruit wine different from grape wine? Well, a major difference between the two lies in the process. Fruit wines and usually chaptilized – the process of adding sugar to unfermented grapes in order to increase the alcohol content after fermentation.
Then, special enzymes are also added to the wine to increase the aromatic qualities of the wine. This process of adding special enzymes is absent in grape wine.
Fruit wines are comparatively more difficult to make because they require quite a lot of adjustments and balance compared to grape wines.
Also Read: Legal Age of Drinking In India: A Comprehensive Guide
Strawberry Wine In Mahabaleshwar: Key Details You Need To Know
If you think you can find strawberry wine in any part of the country where strawberries are made, you might be a little wrong. Strawberry wine is only available in Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, so if you are a wine connoisseur who’s also fond of strawberries in their wine, you must visit Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani.
The unique wine is available at select wine retailers in Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani – make sure to explore the markets here and you’ll find a few stores selling this wine. Prices of these wines usually start from INR 600 onwards.
There are four main brands in this region that produce and sell high-quality strawberry wine. Rhythm, Sweet Charlie, Pomona’s, and Wildberry are the prominent brands known for their delicious wine offerings.
Though their bestselling product is often strawberry wine, they also sell wines in different flavors like mulberry, raspberry, kiwi, pineapple, peach, raspberry, plum, alphonso mangoes, and even chocolate! Yes, there are countless wine flavors to choose from, so make sure you pick up the one that you like the most!
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Summing Up
There’s no other alcoholic drink that is as unique as strawberry wine. This wine, sold exclusively in Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, is a unique offering of the region that you should definitely not miss out on. There are 4 prominent brands selling Mahabaleshwar’s iconic strawberry wine, each being unique in their offering. So, when are you trying this delicious wine?
