It’s not often you find an unfamiliar style of wine hitting the shelves at Christmas but, thanks to the discounters, 2015 seems to be all about ice wine (or icewine, if you’re Canadian). Lidl, whose seasonal wines went on sale this week, has introduced the intensely luscious Vidal Icewine 2013 (11% abv), from Pillitteri Estates in Niagara, at just £14.99 a half-bottle (that’s cheap for ice wine), while Aldi has the exotic Trius Canadian Icewine 2014 (11% abv), also made from vidal, at £24.99.
So what is ice wine? Traditionally (and generally in Canada), it’s made from grapes that have been allowed to freeze on the vine, though the process elsewhere can be induced by simply freezing the grapes after picking. The effect is to shrivel and concentrate the berries, which produces a light, luscious, intensely sweet juice. It needs to be served very cold to balance the sweetness, and arguably sipped on its own. It’s certainly better suited to light, fruity desserts than to Christmas pudding, for which you’d do better to turn to a grapey moscatel such as the well-priced Williams Moscatel Blanco (£7.50 on the current 25%-off deal if you buy any six or more wines at Marks & Spencer; 15% abv).
Ice wine, like iced cider, which is also a thing this Christmas, is good for what the multiples irritatingly call “gifting”. Again, Lidl has come up trumps with an iced cider from Quebec called Neige (9% abv) at £19.99 a half-bottle, while Wine Rack has the La Face Cachée de la Pomme Neige Cidre de Glace Récolte d’Hiver 2008 (9% abv) at £39.99 a half-bottle – that one would be the ideal present for a hard-to-please wine buff. In fact, Canada seems to be flavour of the month at the moment: there’s a gorgeously silky pinot at Marks & Sparks, Meyer Pinot Noir 2014 (13% abv), from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, normally £18, but just £13.50 on the current M&S offer. This would be good if you’re having duck as your Christmas Day meal.
Other sweet wines to look out for are Denbies Noble Harvest Ortega 2014 (10% abv) at £19.99 a half-bottle in 22 Waitrose branches (mainly in Sussex and Surrey) and online from Waitrose Cellar – this is another real curiosity that you could pass off as “English sauternes”. There’s also some cracking PX sherry around: Lidl and Morrisons have half-bottles for £5.99 or, a real treat for any sherry-lover, splash out on a half-bottle of decadently syrupy Toro Albala Don PX Gran Reserva 1986 from the neighbouring denomination of Montilla-Moriles (£16 Tanners, £22.99 Oxford Wine Company; 17% abv). That’s your yule log taken care of.
