![]() ![]() The freezing concentrates the flavour in the wine into gorgeous luscious flavours of apricot and peach preserves like these Icewines from Henry of Pelham, Peller Estates, Pondview and 13th Street from Niagara. Thirty Bench Special Select Late Harvest Vidal 2017 I’ve got a lovely one here from Trius in Niagara and from Thirty Bench with gorgeous flavours of apricot preserves. So these could have either melted a little bit or maybe they were harvested in October or November. If they melt at all, the wine must be called Late Harvest. These little marble pellets have been known to break the wine presses. Often at night, in December or January and they must stay frozen. It’s a matter of cold versus rot, Leanne. Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario V.Q.A., Canada Pillitteri Estates Winery Team Canada Vidal Icewine 2017 Niagara Peninsula, Ontario V.Q.A., Canada And, then I’ve got Pillitteri Icewine as well. So, I’ve got Gretzky Estates number 99 Icewine, I think he should be associated with anything to do with ice. It’s surprisingly low at about 10%, unlike fortified dessert wines like port and sherry which clock in at about 20%.Īlthough Icewine was first made in Germany in 1794 when farmers tried to save their grape harvest after a sudden frost, Canada is now the world leader in its production because we’re consistently colder every year than Germany. Sweet wines, such as French Sauternes and Barsac, Hungarian Tokaji and some late harvest wines, depend on botrytis cinerea, or “noble rot.” This good fungus penetrates the grape skins and allows the water to evaporate, concentrating the juice. If that does happen, the wine must be labeled as “late harvest” rather than Icewine. That’s why grapes are typically picked at night so that the concentrated winter nectar isn’t diluted by melting. The grapes for Icewine are picked and pressed at -8 oC or colder. With Icewine, the water in the grapes freezes more quickly than the sugar and separates out, concentrating the sweetness and fresh fruit flavours of the dehydrated grapes. How is Icewine different from other dessert wines? Have you got a fave? Let me know in the comments please! With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, these wine make terrific pairings with chocolate and other treats. This results in relatively small amounts of ice wine being made worldwide, making ice wines generally quite expensive.On CTV News yesterday, Leanne and I chat about Icewines and dessert wines. Ice wine production is risky (the frost may not come at all before the grapes rot or are otherwise lost) and requires the availability of a large enough labour force to pick the whole crop within a few hours, at a moment's notice, on the first morning that is cold enough. When the grapes are free of Botrytis, they are said to come in 'clean'. This gives ice wine its characteristic refreshing sweetness balanced by high acidity. Only healthy grapes keep in good shape until the opportunity arises for an ice wine harvest, which in extreme cases can occur after the New Year, on a northern hemisphere calendar. Unlike the grapes from which other dessert wines are made, such as Sauternes, Tokaji, or Trockenbeerenauslese, ice wine grapes should not be affected by Botrytis cinerea or noble rot, at least not to any great degree. With ice wines, the freezing happens before the fermentation, not afterwards. ![]() The grapes' must is pressed from the frozen grapes, resulting in a smaller amount of more concentrated, very sweet wine. The sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, but the water does, allowing for a more concentrated grape juice to develop. " Ice wine (or icewine German: Eiswein) is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. ![]()
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