Ice wines quite a treat

Sheldrake Point Vineyard is developing an ice wine tradition on the western shore of Cayuga Lake.

The winery harvested Riesling and cabernet franc grapes in January. According to Bob Madill, winegrower and general manager, it takes four to seven people a few hours to fill 50 lugs (harvesting containers) with 1100 pounds of frozen grapes.

Of course, they have to start at 5 a.m. and work kneeling in the snow. It takes the rest of the day to squeeze the frozen grapes for the concentrated juice to make dessert wines.

The tank sample of the cabernet franc ice wine I tried had pronounced fruit flavors -- cherries and figs. It will be a great addition to Sheldrake's dessert wine line when bottled.

A Riesling tank sample had a creamy taste, with peach and apricot flavors. It also had lots of acid that balanced well with the high residual sugar.

The creamy taste may have been because of the yeast still in the tank sample. Upon completion, the 2003 Riesling ice wine should be another stellar example of those produced in the Finger Lakes.

"We need to respect the tradition of ice wine and bring that integrity to market," Bob said.

Hunt Country Vineyards in Branchport also has a rich tradition of making ice wines. The winery is above the west fork of Keuka Lake. "Across the Finger Lakes we have been known for dessert wines," winemaker Tim Benedict said.

He feels that Hunt Country has a unique site for making ice wine. According to Tim, the vineyard has a cooler microclimate than most Finger Lakes' vinyards, because it is up the hill from a small body of water.

With less lake-effect temperature moderation, Hunt Country gets a hard freeze earlier than most wineries.

"The key to ice wine is freezing-thawing cycles," Tim said. He believes that two to three such cycles produce brown, milky grapes that provide honey and apricot flavors.

Although Hunt Country has produced Riesling ice wine for many of the 17 years Tim has been with the winery, 2003 was not one of them.

A cold, rainy growing season prevented their grapes from reaching a sufficient sugar level. Hunt Country sacrificed this year's vintage in order to maintain their tradition of producing high quality dessert wines.

Even though ice wine was not made from Hunt Country's 2003 grapes, there is good news for dessert wine lovers. The vineyard produced a large crop for the 2002 Late Harvest Vignoles. It earned the Jefferson Cup for the best nonvinifera white wine last December.

The 2002 Vidal Blanc Ice Wine is also available from Hunt Country. It has rich apricot and honey flavors -- with a citrus edge that balances well with the 19 percent residual sugar.

These expensive wines are quite a treat. I won't be surprised to see more Finger Lakes ice wines in the coming years.

Jeff Richards' wine column appears Saturdays. For comments or questions, he can be reached at 607/271-8279 or 800/836-8970, ext. 279, or e-mail: jrichards@stargazette.com