sweet wine

latest craze of mine.... recently i am quite into wine...sweet wine in particular... it started when i bought a 375ml bottle of inniskillin ice wine in KL...for around S$26... a product of canada... it was really cheap as compared to singapore... the same bottle i find in singapore was selling at S$138! below is a similar pic of the label and bottle from the net...forgot to take a pic of the label after finished the bottle...:P

a brief explanation for ice wine...extracted from inniskillin web site

"Grapes are left on the vine well into the winter months. The resulting freezing and thawing of the grapes dehydrates the fruit, and concentrates the sugars, acids, and extracts in the berries, thereby intensifying the flavours and adding complexity to the wine made from it.

Genuine icewine must follow VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance) regulations that prohibit any artificial freezing of grapes. The grapes are painstakingly picked by hand in their natural frozen state, ideally at temperatures of -10 to -13 degrees C -- sometimes the picking must be done at night to take advantage of the temperature. Yields are very low, often as little as 5-10 percent of normal.

The frozen grapes are pressed in the extreme cold. The water in the juice remains frozen as ice crystals, and only a few drops of sweet concentrated juice is obtained. This juice is then fermented very slowly for several months, stopping naturally.

The finished icewine is intensely sweet and flavorful in the initial mouth sensation. The balance is achieved by the acidity, which gives a clean, dry finish. The nose of icewine recalls lychee nuts. The wine tastes of tropical fruits, with shadings of peach nectar and mango."



the last one i had is a port...bought at S$49+ from jasons wine cellar... a type of fortified sweet wine.. which was made by stopping fermentation of young wine by adding of fortifying brandy... which kills the yeast from turning sugar into alcohol... leaving the wine sweet (and more alcoholic...20%!). this bottle i had was produced by graham's... from the upper douro valley vineyards. a late bottled vintage (LBV) category...vintage simply means it was made from grapes in a single year harvest.. and not a blend of vintages...filtered and ready to drink from the bottled... it was harvested in 1997 (a very good year for northern portugal i read) and bottled in 2003... a few good year in the barrel...

i heard port matured well in both bottle and barrel...giving different taste for each as it matured... i had yet to try out those 10, 20... years old vintage ports... must be very tasty...:P