Pomegranate and pomegranate molasses, flavouring profile

Pomegranate and pomegranate molasses, flavouring profile

Pomegranate is sweet, sour and faintly astringent all at once, and its syrup, pomegranate molasses, concentrates all three.

The compounds that matter. Fruit acids, high enough in the molasses to flatten a soft wine. Fruit sugar, which makes a bone dry wine taste thin. The grippy, tannic compounds of the skin and pith, which add to any tannin in the glass and can make a firm red feel dry and rough.

What it demands of a wine. Fresh acidity with ripe red fruit, and moderate or low tannin. A wine with a savoury or spiced edge meets the lamb, walnut and warm spice the molasses usually comes with. Heavy oak is out.

Seek. Bandol rosé, a darker, savoury pink from Mourvèdre, for lamb glazed with pomegranate. Agiorgitiko from Nemea, soft in tannin and full of red fruit and spice. An orange wine, preferably a structured Georgian qvevri Rkatsiteli from Kakheti, for example a Pheasant's Tears Rkatsiteli or an Alaverdi Monastery, from a country that cooks with pomegranate and walnut. Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, a darker Italian rosato, for fattoush and salads.

Avoid

Firmly tannic reds, whose grip stacks on the astringency of the pomegranate. Lean, bone dry whites, which the fruit sugar makes thin and sour. Heavily oaked wines, which clash with the fruit.

Three to reach for. Darker Bandol rosé, Provence, France. Agiorgitiko, Nemea, Greece. Skin contact Rkatsiteli, orange style, Kakheti, Georgia.