Have you ever heard a wine be described as ‘jammy’? When I first heard it I wasn’t really sure what context to use it in. I mean some people use it as a bit of an insult to the wine. But others use it as a characteristic that they like. So how are you meant to know if a jammy wine is a good wine?
Let’s dive into what a jammy wine is – what it means, where you will find it, and whether it is a good or bad thing.
What is a jammy wine?
Jammy is a wine term used to explain a fruit-forward wine. They are packed full of jam-making fruit flavours like strawberries, plums and blackberries. These wines are usually ripe, concentrated and fruit-forward. These wines also usually low in acid and tannins.
To create this flavour the fruit usually is overripe. The grape berries have ripened in a warmer climate, or been left on the vine and are sometimes overripe. When they are harvested they tend to be high sugar and alcohol, low acid, usually low tannin and full of concentrated fruit flavours. The flavours are concentrated and some of the fruit will taste cooked and sweet. These wines can have a syrupy sweetness of cooked fruit.
Where you’ll find it and how to look for it
If you can picture the wine regions of Australia and how hot some of these get, you can imagine that some of the wines we love would often be described as this because they are packed full of ripe fruit flavours.
There are also a few red varieties (you won’t find this used to describe white wines) you can look out for:
- Zinfandel
- Grenache
- Cabernet Franc
- Shiraz
- Merlot
- Cabernet Sauvignon
So is jammy a good or bad thing?
Wine experts normally use ‘jammy’ as a negative tasting note. It has been associated with simple wines and often with bulk producers. Jammy wines are seen as wines that can easily be flabby because of a lack of acid. There is also a connotation that these wines have had a lot of additives put into them to balance out the low acid and high sugar. So over the years this term has become an insult.
But like most wine tasting notes, it is down to personal preference. Plentyof people enjoy jammy wines and look out for those concentrated fruit flavours. If you like fruit jam flavours on the palate, it’s likely you will enjoy jammy wines, and there’s nothing wrong with that!
So are jammy wines good?
Regardless of what the critics say, it isn’t always a bad thing to have a jammy wine. It comes down to personal preference. There are plenty of wines that have jammy characteristics that can be delicious if you love these flavours. So don’t be put off the next time you read that a bottle of wine is jammy. It might be your new favourite!