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[maillotpois]

Good job Fish! (Sorry about the FIL - yuk!) Anyway I am so glad all went well.

Nanci - don't get me started on dessert wine.... Bonny Doon also makes a (faux) icewine that's pretty yummy. I say faux because they freeze the grapes as opposed to having them freeze on the vine like true icewine. Still yummy. I am also a huge madeira fan. Not Bual, though.

[DrBee]

So - total wine moron here - what does freezing the grapes do to the taste of the wine???

[maillotpois]

Icewine is a sweet, thick wine made from grapes which have been allowed to freeze on the vine. (Typically German or Canadian in origin). When the frozen grapes are pressed, the resulting juice apparently has a higher sugar content (and there must be something else going on chemically to make it almost viscous). That's a (drunk) layman's explanation.

[Brina]

So - total wine moron here - what does freezing the grapes do to the taste of the wine???

"To make Icewine, the grapes are left on the vine until after the first frost hits. These grapes are harvested after being frozen in the vineyard and then, while still frozen, they are pressed. They must be picked early - before 10 a.m. During both of these processes the temperature cannot exceed -8 degrees C. At this temperature (-8 degrees C) the berries will freeze as hard as marbles. While the grape is still in its frozen state, it is pressed and the water is driven out as shards of ice. This leaves a highly concentrated juice, very high in acids, sugars and aromatics." from Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) of Ontario


There are two things at work here affecting the sweetness. First, it is a late harvest and therefore the grapes are a bit overripe and therefore naturally sweeter. Second, the water freezes and then is forces out as ice leaving more sugar behind than if you press unfrozen grapes.

[DrBee]

Cool!

(ooh - sorry - bad pun - it's really uncontrolable, you know)

[Nanci]

fishdr, it concentrates the sugar. For those who are making wine in climates that are not conductive to reliable freezing, we have the freezer to do it artificially! "Real" ice wine, such as that from New York, is VERY expensive. I have yet to taste it...(Like $60/half bottle and WAY up). I am hording a bottle of Riesling ice wine from California.

mp, you HAVE TO try the BD Viognier Doux...I've had the BD Muscat Ice Wine, very yummy. And also the Raspberry wine, made from three different raspberries. That's another one where I set out to have one dessert glass before bed and couldn't stop...

Have you ever tried Banyuls, from France? OMG, it's like, "deep, heavy, syrupy, raisiny, spicy, plum, prune" in my tasting notes...It's a Grenache dessert wine. Here in Florida the local wineries make some VERY nice sherries and ports from the native grapes.