This Sweet Wine of Mine

There have only been two times in my wine career that I have ever questioned if I had made the right choice.

This year was my first experience with making Ice Wine. It was a lovely, brisk, 15-degree December morning when the winemaking team began pressing the frozen grapes. The containers that held the grapes were frozen. The handles to open and close the press were icy-cold to the touch. The ground was frozen. By the time the press was filled, I was also frozen. We started the press and 18 hours later, we had a total of 200 liters. The process continued two more times over the course of a week. 

Just to put it into perspective - one non-frozen, grape press load can fill a 6,000 liter tank and only takes about two hours.

So why all this hoopla for a wine that very few people drink regularly, or will ever drink at all?

I’ll confess beyond wine dinners and research for the article; there has only been one time in my life that I’ve voluntarily opened & drank a sweet wine and I know I am not the only one in the beverage industry to do so. All too often, we hear of sommeliers and wine enthusiasts promoting sweet wines as “some of the greatest wines in the world.”  While I don’t think they’re wrong, I do think we need to shift the focus. Rather, we should say: sweet wines are some of the most unique, interesting, and misunderstood wines of the world; their taste, as well as the difficultly in which their existence comes to fruition.  

While there are a few methods in which sweet wines are produced, for the sake of simplicity, the two we will focus on are Ice wines/Eisweins and Botrytized wines. The two methods are:

Ice wine: The grapes achieve full ripeness on the vine, are harvested, and then pressed frozen. This process leaves behind the water and extracts only the purest, most concentrated flavors. The traditional method requires the grapes be left on the vine to freeze with the first frost of the season or – depending on your location and local wine law regulations – may be picked and frozen using large industrial size freezers.

Botrytized wines: The Botrytis rot – commonly referred to as Noble Rot – affects the grapes by attacking the water within the individual berries, causing them to shrivel. This process concentrates the flavors, sugars, and acids. The berries are harvested over weeks at a time picked as individual berries rather than whole clusters due to the nature in which Botrytis spreads.

If there is one major take away; as sugar concentrates, so do the acids and flavors within the berries making these wines extremely complex. The high sugar level is matched by the high acidity, creating a wine at perfect equilibrium. Both styles of wines have the ability to age for years and the flavors found in these wines are rarely seen in dry-style wines.

However, where the two wines differ is in the flavors you taste, which is entirely due to the methods of production. Ice wines are pure and lifted in their flavors with notes of wildflower honey, ambrosia salad, and overripe apricot. Botrytized wines jump with flavors of candied pecans, beeswax, ginger, white peach nectar and lemon curd.

So, where does the distain for sweet wine stem from?

We consume exorbitant amounts of sugar daily. A single can of red bull contains 11 grams of sugar per milliliter. Julien Pinon’s Silex Noir off-dry Vouvray contains .034 grams of sugar per milliliter. This means you could drink the entire bottle of wine and you would have consumed less sugar than drinking a two ounces of Red Bull.

Sweet wines have been produced for thousands of years, and the method in which they are made has not changed. I’m not saying that those cloyingly sweet wines don’t exist. Typically, these wines are made with something called Rectified Concentrated Grape Must. Think of this product as the equivalent to high fructose corn syrup, but for wine. The key to finding the wines you want to drink is to look at the label (or just come to Spencer & Lynn). Legally, if a wine is made via one of the two methods as I listed above, then the regulations, put forth by the government or governing wine body, has set strict laws to which producers must follow to put those ‘titles’ on the label.

I suggest for the first time you dive into the sweet wine world that you plan ahead. A simple dish is the perfect vehicle to allow you to discuss and enjoy these wine. Serve the Julien Pinon Silex Noir Vouvray as a fun innovative way to start a dinner party with friends. Or skip dessert and serve a cheese course to finish a meal with Julien Pinon 2015 Botrytis. Another option, enjoy both wines, compare and contrast which pairing you prefer with the cheese dish recipe below, (just a suggestion from personal experience).  Don’t want to skip dessert? Pellegrini Vineyards Finale Bin is a luxurious wine dripping with flavors of orange marmalade and honeydew melon that would make the perfect accompaniment to fresh berries.

Ultimately the point is that we need to stop turning our noses up at sweet wine and give them chance. If not for the taste but respect for the amount of work and care it takes to produce these wines.

Warm Ricotta with Toasted Baguette

Whip the ricotta with fresh herbs such as thyme and parsley with a pitch of salt and pepper and spoon into oven safe dish.

Place in 400-degree oven for 20 minutes or until edges begin to brown.

Remove from oven and serve warm with warm toasts points drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper.

– Kathryn