Click to be added or deleted on this low volume, highly intellectual ping list.Oenology news ping.
Posted on 02/27/2006 7:02:59 PM PST by NautiNurse
Award-winning Riesling ice wine from the Sheldrake Point Vineyard and Cafe in Ovid, Seneca County, was on the menu last Saturday night when the nation's governors sat down to dinner with President and Mrs. Bush at the White House.
Bob Madill, winemaker and one of the owners of the Sheldrake Point winery, and Kit Kalfs, tasting room manager, said they are honored that officials chose their ice wine, the winner of a gold medal during the recent Florida State Fair International Wine Competition.
And just ahead of that medal came top place in the Hyatt National Riesling Challenge Trophy for Best North American Riesling.
Held in the Australian capital of Canberra, that competition drew a record 328 wines from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany and the United States.
"Wine Spectator" magazine also has weighed in with its opinion of Sheldrake's 2004 Riesling ice wine.
Out of a possible 100 points, the magazine gave the Sheldrake product a 91, the best yet for a Riesling ice wine.
Ken Helm, chairman of the Australian event, said the Riesling challenge in his country is held to promote, recognize, educate and reward "excellence in Riesling wines and its makers."
And it comes, he added, "with Riesling rapidly becoming a preferred drink of wine consumers around the world."
The Hyatt Trophy for Best North American Riesling was an exciting win for Sheldrake and another international milestone for showcasing the exceptional quality of the Finger Lakes region and its wines, Madill said.
With the temperature reading 14 degrees and several inches of snow on the ground the first week of January 2004, Sheldrake's vine-frozen grapes were picked by hand.
They were pressed right away, fermented for 28 days and produced 112 cases of wine.
Ice wines came into being years ago in Germany when winemakers discovered that the freezing and thawing of grapes left on the vine concentrated the sugars and flavors. They would pick the crop in temperatures of 12 to 18 degrees.
The result was and continues to be a sweet dessert wine.
Ice wines first appeared in this region 15 or so years ago and continue each year to gain in popularity.
Sheldrake Point's Madill, the winemaker, and Kalfs said their ice wine, selling for $60 a bottle, was to be a part of the menu for the National Governors Association's dinner meeting with President and Mrs. Bush on Saturday.
About 45 governors have been in Washington since Saturday for their winter meeting and Healthy America Forum. The event ends Tuesday.
Sheldrake produces some 6,000 cases of wine yearly on its former Glenwood Farms site, a Sheldrake Point landmark since the 1850s. Classic European grape varietals are a specialty.
The 155-acre site, an aging dairy farm, was purchased in 1996 with five acres of vines in the ground by 1997 and 35 additional acres added by 2001.
Sheldrake's first release from its own grapes took place in 2001.
Reisling is too sweet for my taste.
Neat!
It's good PR for Finger lakes wines.
I'll have to see if the Uncork NY store carries this!
http://www.newyorkwines.org/winecountry/fingerlakes/index.asp?p=41&cwid=1
That would be a no-no for Mitt Romney !
Ice wine is even sweeter -- but it makes such a good desert wine.
Very impressive for a relatively new wine maker. Enjoy!
ping
Wonder if "Rapid Edward" (TM Colin) was in on this......
That's a great winery! If anyone happens to make it this way, I would suggest a visit.
I have to be parochial and put a plug in for Minnesota wines.
Yes, that's right. I said Minnesota wines!
There are a number of areas in the St Croix and Mississippi River Valleys that are conducive towards growing wine grapes.
Alexis Bailly Vineyards makes a fairly decent ice wine. For those of you interested, here's a link:
http://www.abvwines.com/icewine.html
Ice Wine is translated from the German "Eiswein", a wine of longstading tradition made from grapes that are allowed to freeze on the vine before harvesting. The water in the fruit is bound as frozen crystals, or "ice", and removed, leaving an extra sweet juice to ferment into wine. As water makes up over 40% of the composition of the grape you can easily see that the production of a wine like this is extremely limited and rare. Here are a few suggestions for service:
Always serve well chilled - a cordial glass works best
Keep an opened bottle, corked, in the fridge for up to a week
Serve after dinner by itself for a light and easy dessert
Serve with fruit tarts, such as a tart tartin make with pears or apples
A bowl of fresh seasonal fruits splashed with a little "ice"
Biscotti or similar cookie, deliciously dipped in a glass of the wine
Dried fruit compote
Desserts with nuts When matching sweet wines with dessert try to remember to choose desserts that are less sweet for the most complimentary flavors.
"highly intellectual ping list."
That's me! It's so much better than that drunk and stupid list I used to be on.
I find it too sweet also. What do you prefer in white wine?
I usually go with a chardonnay.
lol - last time I fired up the ping list, I altered the words to, "usually intellectual."
For whites, I prefer sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio/gris or **gasp** a white Bordeaux.
I would be interested in trying this at some point. My first intro to wine was a Jo-berg. Chateau St. Michelle to be exact. It would be good to revisit.
There are some good Riesling's that aren't too sweet and are very good wines.
The right Riesling can work well with salmon sometimes. True, there are plenty of cheap, too sweet Rieslings.
Ice wine is a dessert wine.
I like Riesling. I wish more people liked it and served it. Of course I drink lots of other wines too. My mama didn't raise no fools.
I would have enjoyed reading the governors were served Danish wine.
If the Danes produce any wine that is.
I'll have to try sauvignon blanc, havent had that in years.
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