Winemaker Notes
Ice Wine is made from grapes left out in the vineyard to dehydrate, which causes the juices to become very concentrated. Boundary Breaks picks this fruit when the temperatures are 15 degrees Fahrenheit or below. At these low temperature the remaining water in the juice turns into ice.
When they press these frozen grapes the water stays behind in the press as ice. This yields an even more concentrated grape essence which they make into this wine. The finished wine has strong aromas of caramelized apple and honey, and pairs perfectly with dessert or a cheese plate.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2022 Riesling Ice Wine is deeply golden and powerful. Though it surprisingly doesn’t have a ton of perceptible sweetness, it’s brilliantly saline and mouthwatering, coating the tongue and cheeks in intensely viscous creaminess. Honey, grilled pineapple and deep, ultra-ripe stone fruit coast through a voluptuous core. This is an excellent ice wine, and a standout in its peer group. RS is 256 grams per liter, and TA is 10.2 grams per liter.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
As the most historic wine-producing region in New York state, winemaking in the Finger Lakes area dates back to the 1820s and today as a region, accounts for 90% of the state’s total wine production.
Its narrow and deep lakes created by the movement of Ice Age glaciers create an environment similar to the classic Riesling-loving regions of Europe, namely Germany and Austria. The Finger Lakes retain summer heat that incidentally warms up cold winter air, making it fall down from the lakes’ steep slopes. When spring comes, the lakes, already cooled by cold winter weather, stave off vine budding until the danger of frost has subsided. The main lakes of the zone, that is those big enough to moderate the climate in this way, are the focal points of prime vineyard areas. They include Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga.
While Riesling has fueled most of the region’s success, today Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc enjoy some attention.