Authenticity is Worth the Price.

"What are the best uses for fruitcake? A boat anchor, a stool to change a light bulb, a door stop," and "fruitcake makes the best gift since delivery services can't damage it."

Search the Internet and 112,000 hits come up for "fruitcake jokes." How did fruitcake get such a bad reputation? And, paradoxically, it remains a popular holiday gift with one of the leading bakers of fruitcakes expecting to ship 1.6 million -- yes, million -- pounds of it this holiday season. And that is just one producer.

Historically, fruitcake has been around since the Romans and the ingredients, while changing to some degree through the years, are basically the same: dried fruit and nuts in a cake that is preserved either with the use of sugar or by soaking in spirits.

The prevailing assumption that fruitcake is more suited for use as a building material is probably the fault of our Aunt Martha or Grandma Louise who, years ago, discovered something new and cheap on store shelves -- candied citrus peel -- and in an effort to save some pennies, used that over the more expensive dried fruits. Gracious sons and daughters accepted their gifts with a smile and tried not to gag when eating it in their presence. Mass bakers didn't pass up the opportunity to crank out cheap versions of a popular classic either, and the world was flooded with awful $2.99 imitations that bore little resemblance to the real deal. The prevalence of these fakes has caused the frequent misperception of what real fruitcake is.

"It's the same with panforte and pannetone in my nativeItaly," explains Jackson-Triggs Icewine winemaker Marco Piccoli. "There are so many bad, cheap versions of them out there that many people assume that they aren't any good. If they weren't any good, they wouldn't be so popular."

Piccoli is no stranger to imitations. He has seen the rise of availability of cheap imitations of the prized Canadian sweet wine -- Icewine -- increase over the years. "Wines that claim to be Icewine, made instead from grapes that have been artificially frozen and have had sugar added, bear little resemblance to the naturally frozen, late harvest wines I make."

Authentic Icewine is made from grapes that hang on the vine through the fall and into the winter, laboriously netted to protect them from ravaging birds, and picked only when the temperature is right: at least 17 degrees Fahrenheit, which is usually in the middle of the night.

"Just like fruitcake, you cannot cut corners and make a real Icewine inexpensively," says Marco.

The leading purveyors of quality fruitcakes, which can cost up to $23 per pound, offer their delicious cakes in small portions so that customers can afford to enjoy the luxury of premium ingredients. Similarly, Icewine -- which can be costly even in the standard half-bottle size -- is made more accessible by Jackson-Triggs, whose rich Vidal Icewine is sold inthe United States in one-quarter (187 ml) bottles at a suggested retail price of $20.

Ironically, these two frequently-imitated classics are a match made in heaven, with the sweet and tart flavors of the wine perfectly complementing the fruits and spices in the cake.

Indulge yourself this holiday season by enjoying authentic pleasures and you'll see the reason for their popularity ... and imitation.

SOURCE Jackson-Triggs Winery

Copyright © 2009, PRNewswire
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Copyright © 2009, NewsBlaze, Daily News

Tags: ,FOD,ALC,Jackson-Triggs-wine

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