What do you do when you have a surplus harvest of tomatoes? In 1938, resources in Belgium were scarce and no food went to waste. Pascal Miche's great grandparents used the excess tomatoes to make juice, jams and even tomato wine.
In 1998, Pascal Miche, a pork butcher living in Quebec, Canada decided to recreate tomato wine from the family recipe. It took him 10 years to find suitable heirloom tomatoes and convince government regulators to allow tomato wines to be produced. Miche was not the first to attempt to commercialise tomato wine production. In 1970, the Tomato Marketing Board of Guernsey was unsuccessful in its endeavour.
Due to the high acidity of the tomato, the flavours of the wine were not well received. But Miche has found some magic, and is now producing more than 34,000 bottles annually. He has named the wines Omerto as a tribute to his great grandfather Omer.
The tomato wine recipe is highly confidential. But it shares some similarities to grape wine production. At harvest time, Miche stringently selects tomato for ripeness and taste. A blend of black and yellow tomatoes is used. Mishe believes the black tomato adds fragrance. Omerto starts with frozen heirloom tomatoes, including the skin, pulp and seeds for a higher sugar concentration.
The tomatoes are defrosted before fermentation in stainless steel tanks. Post-fermentation, the wine is macerated, pressed, filtered and clarified. It is further matured in tank before bottling process.
