There's an urban legend that a German winemaker once spent years in Gran Canaria perfecting a technique for making champagne out of bananas. Everything went to plan until he put the bottles into the cellar to mature. There was so much sugar in the bananas, however, that the gas built up and all his bottles exploded. It was a messy end to a good idea.

Now the idea is back but without the bubbles.

Not banana liqueur

Platé uses bananas rather than grapes but is made exactly like a wine with yeast fermentation followed by filtering and bottling. A different world from the lurid and chemical banana liqueurs that still fester away on souvenir shop shelves. 

The makers of Platé banana wine have done as much as possible to dissociate their product from banana liqueur. So, instead of a bunch-of-bananas-shaped bottle and yellow food dye, you get a pale-yellow wine in an elegant bottle.

The taste