WBW #27: all iced up for the holidays

For Wine Blogging Wednesday #27, I pulled together some friends who were kind enough to share the heavy burden (oh, twist our arms!) of tasting ice wines. Between us and them we had a total of four (!) wines and a table loaded with cheese, fruits, and a fruit tart. Knowing how expensive ice wine can be, I feel rather greedy with all of it, rather like a child who has hit the mother-lode of holiday presents. I will touch on all of them briefly as it was interesting to taste and compare their differences.

The candidates listed in their tasting order:

Selaks Marlborough 2004 — Marlborough, New Zealand.
Inniskillin Vidal 2004 — Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, VQA
Pillitteri Estates Cabernet Franc 2002 — Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, VQA
Lemon Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 —  Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA, Lake Michigan Shore

Selaks Marlborough 2004
New Zealand. A mix of Gewurztraminer and Riesling grapes. Honey colored. This was our "supermarket" (affordable) ice wine. It technically isn't a true ice wine -- either the grapes or the grape juice were frozen after harvest. We thought this wine was best when just opened, crisp with some citrus notes and a sparkling edge (some carbonation?), but as it opened up it became "flabby". It didn't show well against the other ice wines, though maybe by itself it would have held up better.

Inniskillin Vidal 2004
Ontario, Canada. 100% Vidal grapes aged in oak. Yellow color. There were definite sighs of appreciation around the table with the first sips. It started all desserty-sweet with tropical fruits and finished with what one of our tasters described as an undertone of oak — a definite change in character. Very balanced with a long finish. As it opened up, we thought the grapes and the oak became more pronounced. A lovely ice wine. Perhaps the most unusual description was: "Soda-popish but in a positive way." This was the most complex and sophisticated ice wine of the bunch. I suspect this one has also been tasted by other WBW #27 participants, and I look forward to reading what they have to say about it.

Pillitteri Cabernet Franc 2002
Ontario, Canada. 100% Cabernet Franc. Around 2002 or so a few Niagara-on-the-Lake wineries had just started making red ice wines, and I had to try some. This was my second and last bottle from that year. I've had it sitting around waiting for that "special occasion," but not in ideal conditions, so I was somewhat concerned about how it aged. Fortunately, the wine was not corked. I can't really recall how it compared to the bottle I drank two years ago, but we enjoyed this one just fine. A lovely pale salmon-pink color, it had a mix of almond (one of us described it as "quinine-like") and fruit flavors and a slight crisp bite. Some dessert wines don't like to share the stage with food, but this one would go well with fruit and might even play well with some cheeses. (But don't ask me to recommend a cheese — I like cheese, but rarely eat it because of allergies.)

Lemon Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
Michigan, USA. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Joe and I picked this up in the Spring during a short vacation on Michigan's west coast. We visited several wineries in the Southwest Michigan wine region, and Lemon Creek was the one that I insisted we stop at because they make ice wine, and not just any ice wine but the only Cabernet Sauvignon ice wine in the States. So there. Michigan bragging rights.

This red ice wine was not as complex as the Pillitteri, and I was a bit disappointed with it at first. It had a honey taste right off and a nose that mixed strawberries with fish (fish? what's up with that?) When this one opened up, the strawberries really came forward. So strong a flavor was it, in fact, that it felt like I was drinking strawberry nectar. Kinda of odd as a wine experience, but really quite yummy once it opened up. I have a second bottle of this, and I look forward to seeing if the strawberry qualities assert themselves as strongly when tasted alone.

Comments

[Dave Fortna]

I too, tried cheese with my two Iceeeessss, but neither seemed to react in a positive way? Might have been my choice of curdle–Cow Girl, Mt. Tam; a soft runny almost–tipple cream cheese.

And yes second bottles of each were missing and wished for at that moment–the end of the last drops :(

Sounds like you had a fun yummmmmyyyyy get-together!

Talk to you soon...

Best,

Dave