For this Thanksgiving, my husband and I hosted a small (in numbers but not in food!) dinner with some very good friends who live in the area. Military families don't always travel for Thanksgiving because often we opt to see family for Christmas. Friends become family in a blink of an eye and you get to taste different recipes that have been passed down through families that you might not have been able to try otherwise. Pear Cheesecake is awesome! My friend Anu likes Rieslings and sweeter white wines, so I picked up an ice wine to go with dessert- awesome pear cheesecake! I have never tried an ice wine before but I knew through wandering around wine shops that they are usually the most expensive wine per milliliter. I spotted this small, tall, skinny bottle next to the organic wines at my local grocery store. This price was $19.99 for 500 mL, not bad, I can swing that. We had a fabulous traditional meal, broke out the awesome pear cheesecake, and popped the cork. I poured a small measure into my new champagne coupes. I think cordial glasses are the best option if you have them.
First impression is ohh, what a lovely golden-amber color. Pouring it, you can feel how much more thick and dense it is compared to non-ice white wines. That viscosity has a big drawback when you just ate a HUGE meal. At first sip, it didn't taste cold enough (even though it was as cold as the rest of the drinks from the fridge), and was WAY WAY too sweet for me. The heart of this dessert wine are golden raisins. Think of the juice from a thousand semi-chilled golden raisins squeezed into a glass, that is what it tastes like. Also, it has a really long finish. One glass is all I could do and it took me a long time to sip through it. After everybody went home, I wondered what the heck I was going to do with the rest of the bottle? I came up with a cocktail. One ounce ice wine poured into a champagne coupe, topped off with your favorite lemon/lime soda, garnish with a lemon twist or a maraschino cherry. The soda added enough brightness and effervescence to balance out the honey sweet wine.
Here is the description from the wine makers, Schmitt-Sohne from their website www.schmitt-soehne.com.
Eiswein (Ice wine) is produced from grapes harvested and pressed while frozen (not higher than – 7 ° C) to concentrate sugar, acidity and extract. Truly a unique and complex wine with an intense concentration of fruits like honey, caramel and raisins. Eiswein is the crowning jewel of German Viticulture.
Varietal: Mainly Ortega and Optima grapesRegion: Rheinhessen/Pfalz
Alcohol: 8,0 – 9,0 %
Total acidity: 7,0 – 8,5 g/l
Residual sugar: 140 – 160 g/l
Sizes available: 500 ml
Overall impression, glad to try something new, not going to buy this particular wine ever again.
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