Decanter World Wine AwardsWestern Australia's first 'ice wine'
- Monday 11 March 2013
Traditionally, ice wine is made in the cooler regions of central Europe and Canada from grapes that have been naturally frozen on the vine.
Otto is making a similar style of dessert wine by freezing late picked Chardonnay grapes overnight in a commercial freezer at -16C. The fruit, which was at 13.0º baume sugar levels prior to freezing, was then quickly pressed the following morning at a high pressure.
‘We were excited when we inserted a hydrometer into the juice and were getting sugar readings of 17º to 21.5º baume,’ Otto said.
While this ‘ice pressed’ wine has never before been produced in WA, it is not Otto’s first foray into dessert wines, having spent many vintages making Botrytis Riesling and Cane Cut Semillon while at Vasse Felix winery.
‘I heard about a Tasmanian producer who is making an ‘iced’ Riesling with cryo-extraction methods, so I decided to use Chardonnay as it is growing on our estate.
‘Margaret River Chardonnays are already internationally recognised, so I believe an ‘ice pressed Chardonnay’ will be a nice point of difference,’ he added.
Have your say!
Ivan Stephen
March 14 00:01
It will NOT be authentic icewine. This would be like Canada (a cool-climate region) trying to produce an authentic "sherry".
Gregory Sims, Berlin
March 13 16:49
What's the point, one wonders? Using that method, ice wine can be made in any and every winegrowing region. Trust an Australian to apply an industrial technique to what is supposed to be a natural, season-dependent process! Maybe Mr Otto - sorry, Clive - could move to the higher country around Canberra, where there is some vague likelihood at least of the temperatures required for naturally frozen grapes (minus 8 Celsius, isn't it?)... Other than that, leave it to the Canadians, the Germans and Co.
Jan Williams
March 13 06:19
Exciting! Look forward to trying it when released.
Phil Callaghan
March 13 03:45
Gillian Arthur - I am curious as to why you say "what a load of rubbish"? Are you suggesting the article in itself is a load of rubbish or the idea that a producer making a dessert style wine in this method is a load of rubbish?
If the answer is yes to either, then I think it is a great shame that you would be so rude to either Danielle or to Clive. Danielle has reported an article factually and Clive has stated he is making a dessert style of wine by freezing grapes and using the cryo-extraction method as a point of difference to make an interesting wine.
I think it is "quite exciting", but perhaps that's just me.