Winey
Fermented-fruit character that has gone past ripeness. Almost always a defect, and the clearest sign of over-fermentation.
A winey note is fruit character that has continued past the point where it was pleasant. It reads as overripe, slightly alcoholic and sometimes vinegary, and in the worst cases carries a hammy or putrid edge.
It is worth recording as its own note rather than as a variant of fruit, because it is the specific failure mode at the far end of a good process. A fermentation that produces dried fruit at five days produces this at eight.
- Descriptors used
- overripe fruit, sherry-like, alcoholic, fermented, hammy
- Desirable?
- A fault in nearly every context. Rare exceptions exist where a maker markets it as a barrel-aged character, which is a different thing deliberately produced.
Where it comes from
The route by which this note arrives in the chocolate.
When it is a fault
Over-fermentation: the microbial succession has continued past the point where it produces desirable compounds and into putrefaction.
How to tell: Distinguishable from deliberate dried-fruit character by an alcoholic or slightly rotten edge, and by a finish that is unpleasant rather than merely long.
Related
Developed during
- FermentationThis stage is where the note is created, amplified or destroyed. Fermented-fruit character that has gone past ripeness. Almost always a defect, and the clearest sign of over-fermentation.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Chocolate Science and Technology — Wiley-Blackwell(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)