A Little Spice Makes Our Wine Nice!

            Many believe that the habanero pepper is the hottest pepper in the world.  In fact, the habanero pepper is not the hottest, it is however one of the most popular peppers. There is debate on the hottest pepper, some say it’s the Naga Viper pepper, and others claim it’s the Scorpion butch T pepper.  To give you an idea on exactly how hot these peppers are, we will refer to the Scoville Rating system.

            The Scoville Rating is a system of testing a pepper’s heat. What makes a pepper so hot is the oil that is found inside the fruit. This oil is called capsaicin. When this oil makes it inside your mouth, it immediately affects the pain receptors in your tongue. These receptors also cause the burning sensation from alcohol. The rating system can sometimes be inaccurate because it uses a panel of five human tasters. How it works is that they take the capsaicin and incrementally dilute the oil using sugar water. They dilute it down until it has no more detectable heat. If they dilute the capsaicin 100 times, then that is it’s rating on the scale.

            Just to give you an idea of how hot these peppers can be here are some comparisons. Green peppers for example are sweet, so they have a rating of zero Scoville heat units.  A Jalapeño pepper has a rating between 3,500 – 8,000 units.  Habanero is estimated to be around 300,000 units!  The Naga Viper and Scorpion Butch T are estimated to be over 1,000,000 units, which isn’t too far from pepper spray which is over 5 million units. 

            The origin of the habanero is still a mystery. Many believe it is from Cuba, while others think it could be Jamaica or the Bahamas. However, the largest producer of habanero is the Yucatan Peninsula, mainly in Mexico but also in Belize. This pepper thrives in heat, with little water. Making San Diego an optimal growing place for habanero. Indeed it is! The habaneros grown for our Hot Habanero Passion Fruit wine are grown in Escondido. Flavorful, bright and with a nice spicy kick, these peppers give our tangy and refreshing wine a colorful twist.

            Our Hot Passion is a beautiful watermelon color with a nose full of hibiscus flower and passion fruit. The flavor is both slightly sweet with a little heat on the finish. A perfect pairing for sushi, light chicken dishes, and best of all chocolate. We retail this at $15 a bottle and $ 12 for our wine club members.  Dominican priest Francisco Ximenez wrote in 1722,” This pepper is so strong that a single pod would make a bull unable to eat.” This infamous reputation makes the habanero one of the most sought after peppers in the world.