Yum..Ice Wine. When I went to Lake Niagara 6 years ago, I didn't have the palate for Ice Wine, but now I seem to.
You will find Ice Wine comes in smaller bottles and is a bit more expensive than your average bottle of wine. Since grapes are 80% water, they need to be completely frozen to be harvested. Harvest usually happens in the middle of the night before daybreak. When the grapes are harvested, they are usually at 35 brix.
This 2008 Sheldrake Point Riesling Ice Wine was harvested on January 2, 2008 and bottled on August 7, 2008. It has a residual sugar of 16.4, yes that is sweet! There were 175 cases of this made.
The wine had aromas of mango that led to a palate with apricot and hints of lemon and petrol. You could taste a little bit of honey towards the finish. It was slightly syrupy, but light.
As you can see, I was enjoying this wine while working late one night.
Here in the East we have been dealt a heck of a hand this winter. On a recent icy day, I opened a bottle of Inniskillen 2007 Cabernet Franc Ice Wine.
What is really my loss is that I went to college in Buffalo NY and would visit the Canadian side of the Falls quite frequently. Never did drive around the bend to Lake Niagara and the wine. Looking back, I wish I had, but back then I was more of a Brador and Extra Stock drinker (beer). So trips across the border would land us at the beer distributor on the "scenic route" to the Falls and not in the tasting rooms.
Now back to the wine. I had the opportunity to visit Inniskillin a few years back on a family trip to Niagara Falls. However, this wine was a gift from a neighbor who went up for a visit over the summer.
This wine had a bouquet of sour cherry, plum and strawberry. On the palate I found red berry, strawberry with a nice acid and sweetness balance. It wasn't a syrupy wine, not to sweet and a very nice texture.
I am looking forward to visiting again in May when I attend TasteCamp.
I first learned about Ice Wine on a trip to the wineries on Niagara on the Lake while visiting the Falls with my family. It's funny, I went to school for 4 years in Buffalo, NY and visited Niagara Falls Canada quite often but never ventured past the falls. Little did I know about 3 miles down the road is Niagara on the Lake, a cute town and 22 wineries. Many years later with kids in tow we stayed in this cute town and visited the wineries of course after we saw the Falls. It was the girl in the tasting room at Jackson-Triggs who educated us on the entire process of the ice wine harvest.
When the grapes are harvested for ice wine, it is usually done in the middle of the night between the hours of midnight and 5am. The frozen grapes must be harvested and crushed before the sun and temperature rise. She said when it is decided to harvest, a phone chain is started. Everyone arrives at the vineyard around 11pm and 12am and the harvest begins. This was a few years ago, so I would tend to think it is still done today.
Ice Wine harvest @ Brotherhood Winery
In the Hudson Valley it is rare that a vineyard will harvest grapes in December or January for ice wine. Last year Brotherhood Winery did just that with Riesling from their vineyard in Hudson, New York. I was fortunate enough to be there for the harvest. They did harvest the grapes during the day, but who am I to question it, it was pretty cold out!
I had just left the vineyard around 11am when the videographer arrived. He did a very nice job with the video below of Brotherhood's Ice Wine. I believe they just released the wine and it is available in the tasting room. I will have to get over there to get a bottle for review.
