A Fortified Desert Wine

I’ve tasted several Ice Wines on my wine adventures, but I’ve never seen or heard of one that had been fortified, until now. On a recent trip home a friend bought me a bottle of Kittling Ridge Ice Wine & Brandy, which sounded like it could be very interesting.

The first thing I had look into was where did the brandy come from, and unsurprisingly it was Canadian. Produced by Kittling Ridge themselves from grapes grown in Niagara, Ontario, using traditional copper stills and then age the brandy in small oak casks for seven years.

The Ice Wine is made from the Vidal Blanc grape, and as with other Canadian Ice Wine the grapes aren’t harvested till the temperature drops to minus eight degrees Celsius, to ensure most of the water is frozen to leave a very sweet and concentrated grape must. It is then fermented in steel tanks and bottled; it receives no oak ageing in this case.

To blend the two of these together I thought the brandy would have completely over powered the flavours and aromas of the Ice Wine; however I was very pleasantly surprised.

In the glass you had this bright lemony gold colour, which you could almost see the sweetness of the wine due to its viscosity. On the nose you got these wonderfully pronounced aromas of tropical fruit and almonds with floral notes coming through in the background. To taste it was as you could imagine, lusciously sweet that almost coated your mouth with the fruit flavours, then came the warming sensation of the Brandy, which just complimented the Ice Wine superbly. Their was a low level of acidity which cut through the sweetness perfectly making it all faultlessly balanced and an amazing drink, not what I would have expected.

This fortified desert wine, due to the Brandy was not as sweet as Ice Wine, but beautifully blended to extract all the aromas and flavours of each component, without either one over powering the other. Would I recommend this, absolutely, it took an amazing wine and added another completely dimension, without ruining either.

Peller Estates Ice Wine Oak Aged Vidal 2004

Earlier in the year I got the opportunity to taste the marvels of Canadian Ice Wine, namely those from the Inniskillin winery. This had been the full extent of my knowledge regarding these desert wines. Until now that is, when a friend brought me back a bottle of Peller Estates Ice Wine Oak Aged Vidal 2004.

Vidal Blanc, which is often just referred to as Vidal, is a hybrid. Which means it has been created by pairing two other varieties together, in this case Ugni Blanc and Seibel?

For Ice Wine they wait till the temperature drops to around -8°c before harvesting the grapes, resulting in a very small amount of intensely sweet juice once pressed. Before this wine is bottled it is aged in French Oak for four months, which adds yet another dimension.

The final product had a beautiful amber colour, with developed aromas of jam, tropical fruit, stone fruit, and honey. To taste, the wine did not disappoint, the fruit and spice all worked wonderfully with the sweetness and acidity of the wine, to produce a beautifully balanced wine.

If your looking for a desert wine then go for a Canadian Ice Wine, they are lusciously sweet with wonderfully intense aromas and flavours that can’t be found anywhere else. The only problem with them is the bottles are simply just not big enough!

Inniskillin Ice Wine

Ice wine has been something that I’ve wanted to taste for a long time and at the LIWF this year I got my opportunity visiting the Constellation stand to try some Inniskillin wines. Germany has always been the traditional home of ice wine, but Canada has started to catch them up, producing some fantastic wines this year.

Inniskillin produces its wines from one of four grapes, Riesling, Vidal, Tempranillo or Cabernet Franc, producing some fantastically wonderful and complex wines. You’ve probably heard of most of these grapes, with the exception of Vidal; that’s because it’s a hybrid. This means that two other grapes are crossed together, in this case Uni Blanc and Seibel, to create a new variety.

In order to produce Ice wine they wait till mid January to harvest and the temperature has dropped below 8°C for a constant period. Due to the lateness of the harvest and the freezing process the grapes yield a much more concentrated juice, around 10 – 15% of what you would get for a standard table wine.

At the LIWF they had bought four of their wines with them, all from the Niagra region. There was a Riesling, two from the Vidal grape, a still and a sparkling, and a red one produced from Cabernet Franc. Whilst they were wonderful, the two that really caught my eye were the sparkling Vidal and the Cabernet Franc.

To produce the sparkling Vidal the primary fermentation takes place in a sealed vessel trapping the naturally occurring carbonation in the wine. This is unlike other Sparklings where it occurs from a secondary fermentation. The wine had aromas of stone fruit, such as Nectarines and Apricots, while the natural carbonation and the rich creamy texture is all balanced by the acidity on the palate, an absolutely outstanding wine.

As for the Cabernet Franc, the process is the same, with the exception that fermentation does not take place in a sealed vessel, resulting in a still wine. Brilliantly red in colour, with wonderful fruit aromas of berries, while on the palate again it had a rich creamy texture with flavours of strawberries and cream. Yet another wonderful wine..

It was definitely well worth the wait to sample these wines and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for something fantastic to go with your desert!