Ice Wine

Our Ice Wine has notes of lush pineapple, caramelized banana, and butterscotch candies.

YEAR: 2018

BLEND: 50% Frontenac blanc, 50% Frontenac gris

SOURCE:
Cellardoor Estate Vineyard, Lincolnville, ME

ABV: 9.5%

WINEMAKER NOTES: Throughout the summer and early fall, the 2018 growing season was typical for Maine albeit a bit hot and humid. For the second vintage in a row, we left our Frontenac gris and Frontenac blanc grapes on the vine for extended hang time with the expectation that we would make a late harvest dessert wine. When harvest time came, however, New England logged one of the coldest Novembers on record. Seizing the possibly once in a lifetime opportunity to make a true Ice Wine, we quickly assembled a picking team and early on the frigid morning of November 15, harvested frozen grapes off the vines. After a lengthy, cold pressing, where thick sweet juice slowly trickled out of the press for hours, we were left with a solid chunk of frozen grapes in our press (a bit difficult to get out by the way!) and beautiful, aromatic 33.6 brix juice in our tank. After a successful fermentation, we halted the yeast at 16.9 brix by chilling the fermenter down to 33F – leaving the resulting special dessert wine with a residual sugar of 181 g/L. Careful to keep oxygen exposure to a minimum, we fermented and aged the wine in 100% stainless steel.

AWARDS: