Dessert Wines Now Affordable

Ice wines were once a rare and, therefore, expensive wine. But now they've become much more affordable, which is good news for wine lovers.

Joshua Wesson, the founder of Best Cellars, visits The Saturday Early Show to offer the latest on this wine. Wesson likes to spend much of his time educating folks around the country about wine.

Ice wines are dessert wines made from frozen grapes. People are hired to go to vineyards in the middle of the night to pick frozen grapes that have been left on the vine during the harvest. The grapes are rushed back to the winery where they are crushed and out of the grape comes a drop of juice, which is then fermented and turned into a sweet acidic wine.

There are very few ice wines made because it is labor intensive to make, only a small amount can be extracted from the grape, and it is weather dependent. There is also a specific window to pick the grapes: from the time the harvest begins to the time that the grapes start to rot and animals begin to eat the grapes. Locations that are conducive towards making ice wines are Germany, Austria, Canada, and upstate New York.

Very little juice comes out of a frozen grape so wines are typically sold in half bottles that cost from $30 to $100.

Fortunately, the idea came to make ice wines by putting the grapes in freezers. That way, vintners can crush the grapes at their leisure and then call it ice wine.

People did not want this type of wine to be confused with true ice wines made from frozen grapes on the vine, so regulations were set up, and this form of wine was designated "cryoextraction." Since no limit is set by regional climate, this type of wine can be made in regions such as Washington and California. Wines made by the use of cryoextraction can range in price from $15 to $20 because they are easier to make.

The cryoextraction and ice wines taste a little different. They do not have the point of precision because the grapes have not been on the vine as long. The flavor, therefore, will not have as much depth. The cryoextraction reaches about 80 percent in terms of flavor and uniqueness.

The best foods to go with ice wines are desserts with a pronounced sweet and sour component. For example: citrus tarts, lemon curd, stone fruit tarts in flavors like apricot, peach, nectarine, berry, wild berry, strawberry. Sorbets flavors like tangy berries and tangy fruits. Sweet blue cheeses like Gorgonzola dolce.

Traditional ice wine is similar to wine in the sense that there are no bubbles. People started experimenting with bubbles and they made sparkling ice wine.

The following are the wines featured on the show:

Schloss Wallhausen Riesling Eiswein 2002 $95.00 (Germany)

• Jackson-Triggs Gewurztraminer Ice Wine 2002 $50.00 (B.C., Canada)
  
• Steindorfer Eiswein "Cuvee Klaus" 2002 $30.00 (Austria)
  
• Steindorfer Eiswein "Cuvee Klaus" 2002 $30.00 (Austria)
  
• Fortified: Churchill's LBV Port 1998
  
• Late-harvest: Chateau Lafon Sauternes 2002
  
• Sparkling Muscat: Marchesi di Gresy Moscato d'Asti 2003

• Duck Pond Semillon Ice Wine 2002 $35.00 (Washington State)
  
• Covey Run Riesling Ice Wine 2002 $22.00 (Oregon)
  
• King Estate Pinot Gris "Glace" 2003 $20.00 (Oregon)
  
• Bonny Doon Muscat "Vin de Glaciere" 2003 $19.00 (California)
  
• Selaks Ice Wine 2003 $18.00 (New Zealand)

• Inniskillin Vidal Sparkling ice wine NV $80.00 (Ontario, Canada)