Tasting Notes: Word of the Week “Jammy”

Like many wine tasting descriptors “jammy” can be either positive or negative all depending on your personal palate and feelings on jam. So if you crave concord jelly, are mad about marionberries, or are ravenous for raspberry jam then wines with this quality might be right up your alley.

A fruit forward wine is not to be confused with a jammy one. The fruit flavors rather than being fresh, taste of baked, cooked or stewed fruit. Jammy wines have a great intensity of fruit and ripeness and tend to be very concentrated. This characteristic is created by using very ripe fruit yielding wines with high sugar levels often resulting in high alcohol levels as well. These wines also tend to be low in acidity.

The low acidity and high sugar and alcohol levels can be viewed as flaws and is one of the reasons jammy wines sometimes get a bad rap and are often mislabeled as flabby. It is important to remember this descriptor refers to the fact that fruit is the prominent taste and does not reflect on the wines structure.

A jammy quality can most often be found in Zinfandel or Australian Shiraz and pairs great with BBQ’d meats and chocolate desserts.

Our choice for a jammy wine:

2012 Gerard Raphet ‘Lauvaux St. Jacques’ Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Red Burgundy

Wine Spectrum 95: More structure and depth; the nose shows a lovely, earthy edge with hints of smoke and jammy berries. Tannins are silky yet present, and at its core there’s plenty of punchy, persistent red fruit. Serious length here, too.