Monday, July 22 2013
This Wine Stinks
Virtually everyone is familiar with the flavour of the precursor of wine, grapes: they smell and taste delicious even before they make all the wonderful alcohol that we enjoy so much.
This picture has several steps missing . . .
But what about making wine from a fruit that doesn't smell very good. In fact, what about making wine from a fruit that smells like it came straight from a sewer, and one critic described it as being 'like eating strawberry blancmange in a toilet'. What horrific fruit is that, you might ask (and following hot on the heels of that, who's weird enough to eat it)? Behold the stinkingest pile of armoured deliciousness the world of fruit has to offer: durian.
No, this isn't photoshop or some hallucinating Dutch Masters's still-life
Growing in Southeast Asia, durian is a large, dangerous fruit: it's a foot long and six inches in diameter (although I've seen much larger examples in local markets) and according to Wikipedia,
Regarded by many people in southeast Asia as the "king of fruits", the durian is distinctive for its large size, strong odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk. The fruit can grow as large as 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 15 centimetres (6 in) in diameter, and it typically weighs one to three kilograms (2 to 7 lb). Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the colour of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale yellow to red, depending on the species.
The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour that is strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as pleasantly fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and revolting. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine, raw sewage. The persistence of its odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.
Marvellous! All the things you want in a fruit, plus spikes sharp enough to penetrate leather gloves and the stench of turpentine and sewage. Some people describe it with even less favour:
Chef Andrew Zimmern compares the taste to "completely rotten, mushy onions". Anthony Bourdain, a lover of durian, relates his encounter with the fruit thus: "Its taste can only be described as...indescribable, something you will either love or despise. ...Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother."
Having eaten and enjoyed durian, I can tell you that this is an accurate description, with the added character of deliciously mellow almond custard and a smooth, lush mouthfeel. Bourdain is right: if you're the kind of person who likes stinky cheese or well-hung game, you'll like durian. If not . . . well, there are people out there turning it into wine. According to the press wires this morning, 'Scientists in Singapore are turning their hands to wine-making, using the pungent-smelling durian as a replacement for grapes. They're still a long way from commercialising durian wine, but the reseacrhers are confident that the so-called "King of Fruits" has potential for producing a wine that people will want to drink.'
If you watch closely, you can see they're all wearing nose-plugsI'll stick to grapes and the occasional tree fruit for now, I believe.
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