Faux Ice Wine

We hesitated to include this wine on our blog since it apparently isn’t readily available anymore. Rumor has it, Argyle Winery in Dundee, OR is no longer making this fabulous dessert wine. But, it serves as a great example of a ‘fake’ ice wine and therefore we thought it was worth discussing.

A few nights ago, we opened a bottle of Argyle’s 2004 Minus Five. We bought several bottles of this delicious treat at the winery itself. Now it appears to only be available through various online wine retailers. It seems to be going for about $25, and that’s probably not far off what we paid for it. A bit steep, yes, especially considering it is one of those small half-bottles (375ml instead of the standard 750ml). But, crazy as it may sound, it was worth every drop and every penny.

In a word, this wine is all about candy. Minus Five looked like one of those translucent Brach’s fruit candies from years ago. Its color was a cross between a root beer candy and a peach candy. Its nose (its smell) was just like candied apple. The flavor was sweet without being sticky sweet. It felt thick and round at first but then turned into a Kool-Aid burst of fruit. It was a beautiful balance between thick syrup and light fresh fruit. This is typical of ice wines, which Minus Five sort of is.

Traditional ice wines are made from grapes that have been allowed to literally freeze while still on the vine. These frozen grapes are then gently pressed into a thicker, sweet, highly concentrated juice that eventually turns into a delicious dessert wine. Because the climate has to be just right (COLD!), true ice wines are special and priced accordingly.

The folks at Argyle (and they are not the only ones) decided to experiment to see if they could produce a similarly styled wine by forcing the freezing. In our opinion, their experiment was very successful.

At Argyle, they hand-picked a small quantity of very ripe Pinot Noir grapes and flash froze the clusters to -5ºC (hence the name). They then waited for a very cold day and took the frozen grapes out of the freezer and slowly pressed them to extract the juice. From there, the normal wine making process kicked into gear. Because Argyle used a freezer instead of Mother Nature to freeze their grapes, they can not legally call Minus Five an ice wine. But man, it sure tastes like one!

Click here for more info about ice wine.