How sweet it is! Niagara icewines pulling out all the stops in quest for popularity

This week should provide the cold weather needed to complete the icewine harvest for 2012, which is good news for Ontario wineries who have had only a couple of brief cold spells so far this winter to bring in the grapes.

There is a lot of fruit still netted for the 2012 icewine harvest, the largest committed crop since 2007.

Preliminary registrations for icewine and late harvest grapes show 5,500 tonnes of grapes netted for the 2012 season, according to VQA Ontario. This is a substantial increase from 2011’s 3,650 tonnes and slowly pushing back towards production levels not seen since 2007 when a record of nearly 7,000 tonnes was netted.

I’m hoping that signals a renewed interest in icewine both in the export market and, perhaps more importantly, here domestically.

Part of the problem with icewine, in my opinion, is the prohibitive pricing for the average person. It is touted as wine that should fit into our lives on a regular basis but at prices that are pushing $40 for 200 ml a bottle (which is barely enough for two glasses of wine) many consumers are finding icewine a luxury they can’t afford. And prices continue to rise.

I get that it’s expensive to make, but at prices that extrapolate to well over $100 for a 750 ml bottle, it is definitely in the luxury wine category.

One trend I do like, however, is the creativity on the part of winemakers to make icewines with an ever-growing array of grapes. There’s a lot of choice out there beyond the usual Vidal and Riesling.

At the Niagara Icewine Festival opening gala at the Fallsview Casino I was impressed with the Creekside Shiraz Icewine with an entirely new spectrum of flavours and interest.

Likewise, Pillitteri was pouring a 2009 Exclamation Sauvignon Blanc Icewine in 750 ml bottles that was both exciting and unique and presented in a gorgeous bottle and packaging that included a crystal stopper for collectors. The wine was uniquely flavoured with bright lemon, citrus and tropical fruits backed up by racy acidity. It’s not cheap at $150, but at least it’s presented in a package that shouts decadence and elegance and you can plan a complementing dessert around the wine at a special dinner.

I tasted quite a few icewines the past few weeks at various icewine festival events.

My favourite by far was the Konzelmann Riesling Traminer 1993 Icewine. The winery brought a few bottles of this wonderful wine out of its cellar for consumers to taste and buy if they wanted to.

Riesling Traminer is a genetic crossing of Riesling and Gewürztraminer, as opposed to a blend. This allows complimentary flavours of its parent grapes to achieve balance naturally on the vine. Ripe citrus fruit flavours and a bright acidity harmonize well with the wine’s oily texture and mild spice.

And with 20 years of age, it’s an explosive mix of dried, compoted fruits and waves of caramel, toffee and spices that still has lively acidity on the palate. Konzelmann was selling 375 ml bottles for $90, which I thought was reasonable considering the age and the prices today for new icewines.

I have tucked a bottle in the cellar and will dream up some sort of dessert to match with it sometime down the road.

The key to icewine, for me, is aging it. I just don’t appreciate icewine fully unless it has been aged long enough to release the caramel-toffee-brown-sugar-nutty and secondary flavours that I love so much with icewine. So I look for highly acidic sweet wines that I feel will improve for 10 or more years.

Here are a few I’ve tasted recently that will get better with age.

Stratus Riesling Icewine 2008 ($40 for 200 ml, 92 points) — Penetrating aromas of sweet honey, lime, lemon, ripe apples, bees wax, mineral and hints of compoted tropical fruits. It’s built on a backbone of racy acidity that shows on the palate, lifting the concentration of citrus flavours and leading to a long, vibrant finish. A long life a head for those with the patience to wait.

Stratus Icewine Red 2011 ($40 for 200 ml, 91 points) — This fits perfectly into the art of the blend employed by winemaker J-L Groux. It’s a stylish blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre and Syrah (I’m not kidding here). Such a gorgeous and unique nose of maraschino cherry, blueberry, raspberry jam, herbs, and subtle spices that weave through the profile. It shows gorgeous honey sweetness on the palate, nicely balanced by the acid, and an array of red and dark fruits touched by herbs and spices.

Tawse Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine 2011 ($35 for 200 ml, 93 points) — An invigorating nose of strawberry compote, cherry-raspberry accents and touches of jammy black fruits that are persistent and inviting. It explodes on the palate with supersweet and thick red fruits balanced by racy acidity all delivered on a long, clean finish. A nice subtle nutty taste is just starting to emerge. Hold some for the cellar, if you can.

Vineland Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine 2011 ($42 for 375 ml, 92 points) — This icewine achieved an amazing 234 g/l of residual sugar. The aromas are thick and rich with jammy raspberry, black cherry, currants and just a whiff of blueberry chiming in. It’s viscous and rich on the palate with bold and rich red fruits that coat the mouth. It has decent acidity that provides balance on the finish. Altogether, a highly extracted, sweet icewine that deserves some love in the cellar.