"Ice Wine"

[YCFAN]

I've read this in several posts. Can anyone tell me what ice wine is please?

 

[Alacrity]

If you are talking the drink and if I remember right, it's a German style wine (although I would guess there are others) made from grapes havested very late. Havested after it starts to frost. The grapes have been on the vine for a long time allowing the sugars to concentrate. The grapes give a very sweet, potentially, very strong wine.

 

[webray]

A very sweet, wonderful..dessert wine.

Definately late harvest..the grapes are allowed to freeze on the vine just right before being picked.

 

[Forever42]

Here's a lot of info on it. I love the stuff. Too bad it's too expensive for me to have on a regular basis

 

[UKDEB]

Another fan here! I especially like the Inniskillin Ice Wine which we first tried at the Canada Pavilion during the International Food and Wine Festival in 2002.

 

[TwingleMum]

Another ice wine fan. I had it at the Canadian pavillion at 2003 F&W. Very sweet but great.

 

[StuartMI]

Wow, what a great thread! I'll stick my nose in here since I'm an ice-wine addict!

Firstly I need to tell you all that the ice wines from the Niagara Peninsula are some of the best. I actually grew up in Niagara. Inniskillin Winery was about 15 minutes (if that) from my house. You might be surprised to know that one of Niagara's top industries is wine. In fact, there have to be at *least* 20 vineyards in and around that area mostly in Niagara-on-the-lake, a small town off of Lake Ontario.

Anyway, in short, the way it works is that grapes are left frozen on the vines and are *HAND* picked in the middle of winter. Evidently the yield from these grapes is much much smaller which results in much higher costs (as you know) for the stuff. That being said, though, the sugar content in these grapes is MUCH higher. They're usually made with Vidal grapes, but can be made with other ones too.

The other thing I want to tell you, sadly, is that A) Le Cellier overcharges *HUGE* for icewine, and B) Inniskillin isn't the best one I've had. I think it was around $10 or $15 for like an ounce (if that) of icewine (can anyone confirm?? ) Anyway, you can get a bottle of the stuff for around $50 canadian however DW and I were visiting my parents last weekend and picked up 3 bottles of it on sale at $30 a bottle. My absolute favorite icewine is from Stonechurch Vineyards and is a 1991 Vidal. Sadly, it's gone up to $100 a bottle but when I bought it, it was $50. Soooo good.

If you want more information on icewine, or on how to order it (of course, at a HUGELY marked up price) check out http://www.icewineniagara.net. Info on the Inniskillin Icewine from Le Cellier can be found at http://www.inniskillin.com/en/ice/index.asp?location=ice and my favorite, Stonechurch, is at http://www.stonechurch.com

If you take a trip to Niagara, consider stopping by the vineyard. It's *ALWAYS* the cheapest to get the wine right from the vineyard's store.

Maybe one day Le Cellier will start carrying others. The CM/server we had was pretty impressed that I knew about all of them. She was also surprised when I sat down and said I wanted a "pint of Rickards" (beer) or a "Keiths".

Enjoy

 

[YCFAN]

WOW!! Thanks for all the great info. There's always someone on these boards that knows something about every topic. It's great!