Ice Wine

This year, most of the country is experiencing its worst winter in decades.
Ice...snow...cold - ice...snow...cold seems to be the general pattern.
So let's stick with the winter theme and talk ice wine, or icewine, or Eiswein if you're in Germany.
Ice wine is one of the world's great dessert wines. It is very sweet, but the sweetness is nicely balanced by acidity in the better made ice wines.
It is similar to Sauternes in taste, but the process of making ice wine is completely different. Sauternes is infected with Botrytis, also known as "noble rot". The botrytis causes the grapes to shrivel and become raisined, thereby concentrating the sugars in the grapes and the wine.
With ice wine, the producers have to wait for ripe grapes to freeze. Here, the water in the grapes freezes leaving the concentrated grape juice like with the Sauternes.
Making ice wine can be risky and quite expensive. if the grapes stay on the vines too long before the frost, they will begin to rot - not a "noble' rot either.
If the frost does come at the right time all of the grapes need to be picked within a few hours of the first morning's frost. Even with a large labor force to pick the crop, yields are still typically small.
Thus, the high price tag.
Oh, but a good ice wine is divine.
In the New World, i.e., not Europe, the best ice wines are made in Canada, and probably the best Canadian producer is Inniskillin. Their wines typically cost $50 - $75 for a half bottle and are made from the Vidal Blanc grape, which is hardy enough to grow in colder climates.
Ice wine is a great dessert all by itself, but it also pairs nicely with salty nuts, Foie Gras and fruit based desserts.
Have a great weekend! Stay warm.

Tom