Ice Wine

[Jim]

Just came from a friend's house; he's a 'wine guy'. Anyway, he poured us some wonderful King Estates (Oregon) Ice Wine. It was fantastic! Sweet, but not 'chewy' sweet. He explained that the grapes are late harvest and allowed to frost over before being pulled. In Oregon, he mentioned, they pull them and chill them manually. Anyhow, I was wondering if anybody has some other suggested lables for this particular varietal. It used Pinot Gris.
I am a big fan of Alsace variety (the Gewurtriminer, Riesling) so this stuff was right up my alley.

Any suggestions gladly accepted!

[Pete]

I can't remember the names right now, but there are some great Ice Wines coming out of the Niagra (sp?) area of Canada. Some of the best I have tried in a long time.

[holydiver]

Jim I think the real big one is Inniskillen don't know if that is right spelling, but I have had some really good ones by them I think they are in the Niagra/Onatario area if I remember right..

[holydiver]

P.S. I hope you have a good wine shop near you I have tried to find icewine/eiswine in CT. with no luck..

[Live_to_cook]

It's "Inniskillin" -- http://www.inniskillin.com/

Half-bottle of their 2001 sparkling icewine is at wine.com for $70+ ... yikes.

Beautiful winery, though. Free tours, part of the "Niagara Wine Route."

[Pete]

That was the one I was thinking of!!!

[mike]

German producers . No eiswein is cheap because of the handpicking but the germans have been doing this for a long time. check out a german importer.
i prefer muscat de riversaults or some of the spanish sweeties or even australian try to get hold of brown brothers orange muscat its amazing

[davewarne]

I saw some Canadian Gewurtz Eiswein in a local store for £20 (pounds) for 50 cl. Why can't chefs be rich? They need it so much more than other people.

Dave

[cape chef]

From an older thread

I must say I agree with Mira-poix man.
Please do not drizzel and Eiswein over anything except your toungue.
These are truly some of the most fascinating of all the deesert wines produced in the world.

Not a true Trocken or Beerenaulesen because it is not made with the “Noble-Rot”

Picking grapes that have frozen on the vine and then pressing them before they thaw makes Eiswein.
Because much of the water in the grapes is frozen, the resulting juice is very concentrated-rich in flavor and high in sugar and acid.

The resulting wines, although different from Germanys famous TBA and BA’s, are similar because they are extraordinarily sweet.
Yet the balanced by high acidity.

Eiswien are canidates for long aging.
In 1982, Eiswein become one of the six subcategories of “Qualitatswein Mit Pradikat”.

In order to qualify, a wine’s (MUST) needs to reach the minimun natural sugar levels of BA category wines-110 to 128 Oechsle (approximately 26 to 30 % sugar by weight).

Many Eisweins in the states are made by picking the grapes and then freezing them afterwords to produce this (style) of wine.

I hope this helps a little
BTW, Be prepared to pay a big chunk of change if you come across the real deal.
cc


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