Creating Fine Ice Wine
Ice wine is fantastically different from its more common counterpart, table wine. Ice wine takes a a bit more more understanding regarding the making process .
Ice wine or icewine in German is also called Eiswein, originated in Franconia, Germany in 1794. It is a type of dessert wine that is made from frozen grapes which produces the best ice wine in the world.
Ice wine is produced under only incredibly extreme weather conditions and is largely grown and processed in the Pacific Northwest Region, where the weather conditions are ideal for growing it.
Be {sure|certain} to select a wine that has no artificial freezing. Distinctly different from the table wine, ice wine is made from crushed, frozen grapes. The finest ice wines are made from naturally frozen grapes that have been frozen for nearly 36 hours.
Instead of harvesting grapes in the fall, the grower leaves them on the vine to freeze, which forces most of the water outside of the grape in the form of ice. What’s left inside is a trace amount of semi-frozen, super-concentrated, super-sweet juice. When you apply normal winemaking techniques to these grapes, you get a honeyed, rich dessert wine — one of the enormous pleasures of after-dinner drinking.
At least for grapes, freezing is eagerly anticipated by vintners in certain parts of the world. It’s a key factor in the production of the expensive selection of dessert wine known as ice wine.
Temperatures need to settle below 18 degrees for a few days. the grapes stay frozen due to the water content being frozen and the very sweet nectar of the grape is then collected for fermentation. The end result is usually a wine with moderate alcohol, a high level of natural sweetness and laser-focused flavors. Usually fetching $40-$100 per half bottle (375m
Huanren, a picturesque, mountainous county in Liaoning province, is currently building the biggest ice wine estate in the world, which is referred to as “town of ice wine”.
There are some small wineries that create an superb ice wines. Schulze Vineyards & Winery just received a gold medal for their 2008 Vidal Ice wine at the Riverside Wine Competition in California.
As recent as last April 2009, Wine Enthusiast included a photo and review of Niagara Landing’s 2007 Vidal Ice wine with a score of 86 points. Last year the same wine was awarded a gold at the New York Food & Wine Classic. Arrowhead Spring Vineyards & Winery also got rave reviews from Wine Spectator recently for their 2005 Vidal Ice wine with a 90 point score, a unusual achievement for a New York State winner. An Ice wine out of Canada that you might want to try is their 2003 Vidal Ice wine from Yost Vineyard in Nova Scotia.
The history of Ice Wine. The story goes, that, approximately two hundred years ago, a winemaker in Germany found that some of his grape crops had been “ruined” by a frost. Determined not to lose this frozen crop, the winemaker went ahead and pressed the frosted grapes to make wine. He was astonished to find that the frosted grapes produced a sweet, acidic alcoholic drink that was tasty to the palate. Since that time, winemakers have been recreating fine Ice Wine.
