Half-Bottle of Cabernet Franc Ice Wine, Inniskillin - 2022

At Inniskillin, they let the best grapes hang on the vine until completely frozen, and only harvests frozen berries when the temperature falls between 17.6 and 7 degrees F. Ice wine (Eiswein in Germany) requires wine makers to press frozen berries outside, lest the berries melt and ruin the arduous task of picking in the frigid hours of nighttime. (The basket press is rolled on sleighs!) Inniskillin has found a niche making red icewine from the cabernet franc grape. Notes of tomato leaf, red fruit, strawberry rhubarb preserves, syrupy cherries, and tobacco leaf are exciting flavors not usually found in dessert wines. A natural match for chocolate desserts. Freezing the berries means that 80% of the grape mass, water, is removed from the equation of wine. The result is a highly concentrated and balanced glass of wine.