WBW #27: Icy Desserts

I'm so excited to be hosting Wine Blogging Wednesday #27, but before we move on to November's theme I want to remind people that Beau Jarvis at Basic Juice will be posting the results to his WBW #26 Contest very soon now. It's not too late to head on over and take a guess at at the mystery wines. You have until Saturday, October 21.

Photo taken by Dominic Rivard. Licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2. 

It's a good time to be hosting Wine Blogging Wednesday #27, just in time to find something special to share with family and friends for the winter holidays. For those who are new, Lenn at Lenndevours proposed a monthly wine blogging event back in July 2004 and it's been running ever since.  I put in my request to Lenn back in April 2005, and I must admit there were a few moments — with job changes, classes, and other twists and turns in life — when I wondered if I would still be blogging when my time came around, but I've survived! I think this calls for a celebration.

With wine!

I have a very, big soft spot for icewines, and I invite you all to join me in tasting this "sweet seduction in a bottle."

We first came across icewines when visiting Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario, Canada. I was amazed and delighted to discover this unique style of wine thriving so close to home. Icewine (Eiswein in German, but it means the same thing and is basically pronounced the same) is a late-harvest wine made by picking frozen grapes and pressing them before they thaw. To prevent premature thawing, the vineyards must pick the grapes at night or at latest in the earliest dawn hours (before the sun can have a chance at warming them), and all the grapes must be pressed within a few hours of being picked.

With so much water locked up in the ice, the resulting juice makes for a concentrated rich wine that is very high in sugar but also balanced with high acidity. It's most commonly made from Vidal and Riesling grapes and a few other white grapes, but you can also find red icewines made from Cabernet Franc grapes.

The main icewine/eiswein producing areas are Canada, Germany, Austria (and neighboring countries), with wineries in other cold-weather areas like the Northern U.S. and New Zealand experimenting with icewines, too. Genuine icewines must be made from grapes that froze on the vine and were pressed before they could thaw. There is another dessert wine made by artificially freezing already picked grapes and pressing them. In Canada or Germany, artifically frozen grapes aren't true ice wines and cannot put "icewine" or "eiswein" on the label. In the U.S. you'll see such wines called "vin de glaciere" or "icebox wine".

I'm not going to be too much of a stickler for WBW #27. Ice wines are uncommon enough that I don't want to make it harder, so if what you find is "icebox" wine, go ahead and join in anyway! Dessert wines not made with frozen grapes, however, would not fit the theme.

How to participate:

1. Between now and November 8, 2006, enjoy a bottle of ice wine (preferably with friends!), with or without dessert.
2. On November 8th, post a review of your chosen ice wine on your blog. (Advice: icewine can change quite a bit when given a bit of time to open up. So taste it right after pouring, then wait 10 minutes or so and taste again.)
3. Email [email protected] on Wednesday, November 8th 2006 with the URL to your Wine Blogging Wednesday #27 post, and I will include you in the WBW #27 Round Up.
4. Optional: include your location (as general or specific as you like).
   
   

And I will do my best to have the Round Up as quickly as possible to do some holiday wine shopping.

Comments

[sam]

I am totally vested in this edition of WBW. Yesterday bought a bottle of Inniskillin just for you ;)
Well actually, for me but I promise at least to share it's characteristics in a post for you...

I am so excited about this wbw!

thanks for hosting

sam

[Dave Fortna]

POST TO CHICKEN:

WBW #27 is up on Avenue Vine...

Here’s dah linkooossss:

THE BANNER: http://www.avenuevine.com/movabletype/archives/wbw%2327-175-w.jpg

THE POST: http://www.avenuevine.com/movabletype/archives/001990.htm

Yer #27, looks way fun! See you all Nov. 8th

Dave

[Erin]

Rats! As a bonafide Niagara-on-the-Laker I was saving the eiswein topic for that glorious day when (if) Grape Juice got to host WBW. You've beat me to it.

We're looking forward to seeing what everyone can come up with, and have a unique little monkey in mind for our own contribution.

[Frank Dietrich]

Hi,

I am the US importer of Austrian winemaker Weinrieder's distinct Eisweins. If you live in the Bay Area and would like to get a sample of one of his creations for this WBW, write me and I get a bottle to you. Obviously, you are free to voice your personal opinion about the wine you are tasting. I am just interested to see that Fritz Rieder, the man behind the Weinrieder brand is included in this challenge.
Frank Dietrich
Blue Danube Wine Company

[Dave]

Sorry, my eyes are just too tied to finish these up tonight--I will get them done and off to you in the A.M.

Best,
Dave

[Wilf Krutzmann]

I have been following the various postings on Icewine expecting to see at least one mention of BC Icewines.The first Icewine ever to be produced in North America was at the Hainle Vineyards in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia back in 1973. All the clamouring seems to revolve around Ontario Icewines. I am here to tell you that you haven't tasted an Icewine until you have tried one from BC. Hot days, hot nights and high humidity (personal experience) will allow the use of the Vidal grape and a little Riesling. On the other hand the hot days and cool nights and relatively low humidity in the Okanagan allows for a much wider range of grape varietals to flourish. Germany and Ontario, because of climatic conditions, do not and cannot produce a Chardonnay or a Merlot Icewine and believe me the intensity of aromas and flavours in Icewines made from these two varietals are mind blowing. I know this because I am the former owner of The Wine Barel, a specialty BC wine only, wine shop, where I sold close to 30 BC Icewines. For anyone truly interested in the complete story on Icewines, I highly recommend the book simply titled "Icewine" by the world expert on Icewine John Schreiner (ISBN # 189462213-8) Sorry I didn't post my own tasting notes on one of BC's finest. I will be covering the Icewine scene in a not too distant post on my blog (http://wwpress. blogspot.com.) Just waiting to get some further info from a winemaker currently in China. China is of course experimenting with the production of their own version of Icewine.

[Bob Bell]

Icewines are GREAT!!!
I find it does not matter what region of Canada the wine comes from.
The weather controls the quality of the wine for that particular year.

Thank you for linking to my website.

[Rebecca Ritter]

I tried the Vidal from Jackson-Triggs and the Vidal from Peller Estates. I paired them with a Mango-Pineapple Stilton cheese from Dean and Deluca's. Both were out of this world with the cheese...I'm now giving them as gifts.

[Michael M]

Personally I like red and white, it depends on what I want at that time. Over all I think quality is important and it’s good for health as well. The art of drinking wine is one that many people appreciate. For these people having a good quality wine means that it can be drunk at the right temperature. This means that the wine should not be too warm where the sophisticated flavour will be lost. One of the nicest wines that you can buy is an ice wine. Check here to find more on this topic of wine http://www.wine-expert-101.com/Ice-Wine.php

[Ed Hardy 2011]

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