There were 400 six-packs produced (375-milliliter bottles, to which the price refers). It will be better in a couple of years and very different in ten - they are often more interesting with age and gentle oxidation. I bet this ages well, perhaps better than anticipated, but you can enjoy this incarnation right now if you must. After two days in the fridge, it was brighter, livelier and better, every grape, seemingly, defined and expressive as it sat on the tongue. It is all about the fruit and character, although it could use a bit more depth. It has all the complexity the winery mentioned. It does not seem either thick or cloying, but it has a perfect expression of Riesling that doesn’t fade. Standard delivery 1-2 weeks More shipping info Shipping info. Ice Wine, actually, is often surprisingly fresh and elegant, and not just in the Finger Lakes. Weinhaus Kessler Silvaner (sonoma Riesling) Ice Wine 2020 (375ml) Bottle Republic. It has plenty of concentration, but we are still in the Finger Lakes. “Additionally, grapes left out in the elements turn brown and have a raisin-like quality… the ‘Maillard Reaction’… converts sugars and amino acids into new compounds which are responsible for new and distinctive flavors…” After that buildup, you expect me to tell you this is dense and concentrated and all that? Sort of. The difference, they say, “is the level of concentration… prior to fermentation,” which they described as 27.29 Brix for cryogenic versus close to 40 for this wine frozen on the vine. This, the winery is proud to point out, is a “true” ice wine - frozen on the vine, not cryogenically.

It comes in with 11.8% alcohol, 184 grams of residual sugar and 7.4 of total acidity. The 2018 Riesling Ice Wine, made by winemaker David Breeden, was picked on January 14, 2018, and bottled on July 1, 2018. Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate - 28th Feb 2019 For the moment, they are all pretty fine and reasonable minds might differ. Let’s come back in five years and see what they look like with a little age. The Riesling Icewine is honey gold in colour, with a lifted nose of dried apricot, wildflower honey and candied lemon.

Perhaps in the end it is more a question of being different than better, with this being the most different of the three. Then, I retasted the Riesling Reserve and the HJW and started arguing with myself again. The upper-level submissions in this report all perform well, are pretty close qualitatively and may flip places as they age, but for the moment, this has some pretty good bragging points. That conclusion does require that you appreciate elegance more than concentration, but this shows beautifully. I could make an argument that this is the best of the group, at least today. A little lighter and brighter, this doesn’t have the concentrated mouthfeel of, say, the Riesling Reserve in this report, but it is more transparent, more expressive and just seems sunnier. The 2020 Riesling Magdalena Vineyard comes in with seven grams of residual sugar and 12.4% alcohol. Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate - 21st Apr 2022

Riesling ice wine