need ice wine and Shiraz descriptions?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ynot
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What kind of descriptions? How its made or how it tastes?Ice Wine (known in German as Eiswein) is a white dessert wine. It is made by leaving the grapes on the vine until temperatures outside drop below freezing (usually just at night). The grapes are harvested in the middle of the night, at which point the first of two pressings occur. The first pressing is only a partial pressing. Since the grapes were harvested when the temperature was below freezing, much of the water in the grapes will have frozen. This first, partial pressing "ejects" a pellet of ice from each grape. This is the frozen water. This ice is then discarded.Now, the grapes are ready for the second, full pressing. Since there is less water in the grapes, when the second pressing occurs, the resulting liquid has a higher concentration of sugar.The juice then goes into barrels for fermenting.The result is a sweet wine, with a higher concentration of alcohol (maybe around 14% or so). I have found Ice Wines to be sweeter and a bit more syrupy than a regular white wine. The color tends to be a deeper, more golden color, as compared with, say, a Chardonnay which is more of a straw color. The flavors in Ice Wine are much bolder, with strong tastes of fruitiness.The best Ice Wines come from Canada and from Germany. One of the best known producers of Ice Wine in Canada is Inniskillin. Ice Wines always come in 1/2 bottles (375 ml) and tend to be expensive. For example, a bottle of Inniskillin is usually in the $40 price range.http://www.inniskillin.com/index.aspI'll let someone else do the duty of giving you a description of Shiraz. All I can say about those is I enjoy them very much as well and find them to be bold and spicy tasting, often with hints of pepper.Enjoy!
 
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