Riesling Ice wines, opinions please?!
Riesling Ice wines, opinions please?
Answers:
Riesling Icewines are probably tied for my favourite white Icewine (with the ephemeral goodness of Gewurztraminer). At their best (notably 'Royal de Maria' and 'Stratus') they are luscious, balanced, and have gorgeous lime and petrol notes.
The really beautiful thing about Riesling Icewines though, isn't in comparing them to other Icewines that you might drink right away. If you can, stick them in a cellar for a decade; between the sugar content and the Riesling's natural qualities, they can really handle long-term aging. You do need proper cellar conditions though.
I'd say drinking a quality Riesling Icewine anytime before five years is too soon - after that the petrol and spice really come out. I was fortunate enough once to try a 12 year old Riesling Icewine... wow, just wow. The balance, the complexity, the subtleties, just amazing.
Enjoy!
Source(s):
Wine Geek.
In general, Ice wines are sweet, aromatic and fruity.
I like it... it's a nice change of pace from dry wines.
Generally, obviously served as a "dessert wine", they are VERY sweet and fruity. Personally I love a nice Riesling wine, but I know my boyfriend always will skip it as he thinks it is much too sweet. It is not like any other wine at all, so people who love the dry taste of a bitter wine, often dislike it, and I find people who don't like wine will often at least like it. I tend to be somewhere in the middle, but definitely with this as my favorite!
I'm really not a wine fan but I love a good germany Reisling. Its a light, sweet, fruity wine that almost remind you of a wine coolers. Its usually served with dessert or sometimes a fruit and cheese course. It has a higher sugar content and a lower alcohol content. I can't remember my favorite brand but I know the bottles are all blue with a hand painted sun on the front.
It will be very sweet, definately more of a dessert wine. I like them, depending on where they are produced. VT reisling from Alsasce is one of my favorits. From Canada, I find them overly sticky without as much character, but that's just personal opinion. I would encourage you to definately try them. WIth Creme Brulee is a classic pair, but also try with foie gras or proscuitto.
Icewine or eiswein is quite a bit different from a 'non' icewine.
A normal reisling might have a sweetness in the 1-4 range, an icewine is going to be closer to 20. While a normal reisling goes well with german food as well as some asian cooking, icewine is purely an after dinner drink. Personally, I think they go terribly with dessert, I prefer to have it _after_ dessert, and possibly after coffee to cleanse the palate a bit.
I live in southern ontario, canada, which is a major icewine production region. I think reisling icewines are significantly better then vidal ones which are also common. A good icewine should have some acidity to offset the sugar. On your tongue, this hint of tartness or crispness is what makes, for example, a fresh apple taste refreshing, not syruppy. Vidal icewine tends to be more syruppy, reislings tend to have that fresh crispness alongside the sweetness.
icewines were traditionally made in germany, and I believe they still make some excellent ones, but I'm only famililar with canadian ones, which are also world class. A number of german growers literally moved to Canada, where the climate allows for good icewine production almost every year. I've yet to have a bad reisling icewine. Specifically, the inniskillin, henry of pellham ones I've had were very good.