My ex bought a bottle of this very expensive ice wine about 5 years ago. Since then, it’s been sitting in my fridge. Last week, my mother was visiting and decided to clean out the fridge. She noticed the bottle in the fridge during her last few visits. This time, she assumed it must be some old cooking wine and left it on the counter to throw out. I saw it and told her that it’s apparently a good ice wine. It must have been out of the fridge for 12 hours or so. I just stuck it back in the fridge, but now am wondering if it will still be good.
I don’t drink wine of any kind because it gives me a headache, so I won’t be the one to test it.
Canadian. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been on its side all these years. The bottle is inside a wooden container that hasn’t been opened. Is it too late to put it on its side?
It should be fine. Is it a plastic cork (common in Canadian ice wines)? If so keeping it on the side shouldn’t make a difference.
Since it is a bit on the old side, it may be maderized, which will be different than the natural flavor but still tasty of you like wines like sherry or Tokaj.
I don’t think that ice wine needs to be stored at a particularly cold temperature. Refrigerator temperature is perhaps better than room temperature for wine storage, but any benefit conferred by the colder temperature will probably be offset by the vibration produced when the motor is running.
Also note that most ice wine isn’t designed for long storage. My suggestion would be to free up the space in your fridge by opening that bottle the next time you have a nice dinner with friends or family.
Is ice wine supposed to age well? Once I kept a bottle for 2 years before drinking it, and that wine was much better when it was new. So I’m wondering whether the bottle was still any good to begin with.
Being out of the fridge for 12 hours won’t hurt it. Being in the fridge for 5 would, though.
The constant vibration may have adversely affected it, but being stored upright in a low humidity environment will have certainly caused the cork to shrink.
It may very well be oxidized. It won’t be maderized, since it obviously has not been exposed to heat in the fridge.
The high sugar content does allow an ice wine to last for up to 8, 9, 10 years. But I think they reach their peak at about 2 or 3. Much more vibrant acidity and fruit when they are young, which makes them the treat they are.
The grapes are frozen when harvested and pressed, which removes a great portion of the water in the fruit, thus concentrating the intensity of flavor in the finished wine. They often have pretty low alcohol content because there’s more sugar in the juice than yeast can ferment, hence the super sweetness.
They are expensive wines because of their labor-intensiveness and narrow time window of opportunity for harvest/pressing.
ETA and low yields and production, making them scarcer
Cold temperatures in a refrigerator are more desirable for all wine storage in lieu of a proper cellar. Vibration isn’t much of an issue with modern appliances as they don’t produce much of it.
Ice wines can also certainly be stored for long periods of time and develop tertiary qualities that add complexity to the wine, due to an ice wine’s high sugar content which acts as a preservative.
That said, I want the OP to go on ahead and crack that puppy open, drink it with some Stilton bleu and some salty high-quality nuts with some dried fruit and report back with a lengthy tasting note!
I’ll crack it open this weekend and report back. Someone asked how expensive, and I have no idea. My ex just told me it was expensive and of good quality. She’s Canadian and has experience drinking ice wines.
Awesome, can’t wait to hear about it. My days of sampling great wines and food have ground to a standstill due to my budget restrictions (read: children).
Actually, before I do this I have a question. Even a half glass of any wine gives me a headache. A full glass causes a huge one. I can drink beer/vodka/whiskey without any problem. Would ice wine also give me a headache? If so, I may have to reconsider drinking it. If I happen to get together with friends, I will definitely have them drink it.
Most people get headaches from the tannins in wine; there are more tannins in reds than whites in general. Icewine is still wine, and so also contains tannins. They are also very sweet wines, and so I recommend sharing with friends since most people don’t enjoy more than a small glass or two.
Which icewine is it? Is it a red or a white? The red ones are generally more expensive since apparently it’s harder to keep those grapes on the vine long enough. Another reason for the high cost is the harvesting; the grapes have to be harvested by hand rather than mechanically since they are so fragile. They are also often harvested at night, when the temperature is more ideal and stable. Back when I lived in the Niagara region, the local weather predictions would often include overnight low temperature estimates with commentary on whether the icewine harvest would be good that year.
In beer & cider production, it’s possible to end up with beers that are VERY high in alcohol, but still sweet, but not due to “too much sugar to ferment, leading to LOW alcohol content.” Yeast will ferment out all the sugars they can, until the alcohol content kills them. Some yeasts are developed to very high alcohol tolerances.
Fermentation in wine (or beer, that will be artificially carbonated), can be stopped by chemical means, resulting in residual sugars that sweeten the wine. It can also be sweet due to unfermentable sugars (lactose is a very common one in cider production).
In the end, if it’s low in alcohol content, it’s because fermentation was stopped, or the yeast died early, not because there was “too much sugar to ferment properly” at the start.
