The Gehringer 2014 Minus 9 Ehrenfelser gets its name from the temperature at which the freezing happens- negative 9 degrees Celsius.The flavor profile is very sweet and intense with notes of honey, peach, apricot and candied brown sugar, making it perfect on its own as a dessert. Inniskillin Ice Wine is the most widely known ice wine producer in Canada, and their 2014 Vidal is a very popular variety.A winner of 13 awards since 2012, this elegant and rich wine brings delicate and complex flavors of peach, lemon and orange peel for a pure and smooth finish. Vibrant and rich, the 2010 Sheldrake Point Ice Wine comes out of the Finger Lakes region in New York.It’s composed of fruity flavors like tangerine or lemon and accompanied by a sweet, floral aroma like honey or honeysuckle. As a resident of New York, you are more likely to find a wider selection of American and Canadian varieties simply because of distribution technicalities.Īlcohol content can vary from 6% to 13% depending on the country of origin, because of it’s sweet nature, ice wine is served in small amounts with dessert and sometimes even consumed as dessert. The best ice wines come out of Germany, Austria, Canada and the United States, and come from grapes of the Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Vidal Blanc, Sylvaner and even Cabernet Franc varieties but because only a few countries produce it, ice wine tends to be more expensive and sold in smaller quantities. This process causes the water in the grape to freeze, while the sugars do not, to make a more concentrated, sweet flavored wine.
“We targeted the Japanese and then the Koreans and then it was the Chinese who got interested,” says Dufour.Ice Wines, or Eisweins if you’re in Europe, are made when the winemaker leaves the grapes on the vine until temperatures drop below 19.4 (in Germany) or 17.6 (in Canada) degrees Fahrenheit. They’re buying thousands and thousands of cases of ice wine at a price point which starts at USD$80 for a half bottle.”Īccording to Dufour, Inniskillin first gained interest from Asia through Japanese tourists visiting Niagara Falls who wanted to take back a piece of Canada, which was either maple syrup or ice wine.
BRANDS OF ICE WINE FREE
We’re now the leading wine brand in Hainan Island and they’re keeping our duty free business alive. But now we have a strategy to be aligned with the best importers in all the major markets, and in China it’s ASC Fine Wine.”Īs Joe Bates reports in his GTR analysis (page 16), China’s Hainan Island is playing a key role in the duty free sector in Asia and for Inniskillin the tropical island has provided a lifeline.ĭufour adds: “In the last year our sales are up 300% in China just from focus and dedication and we’ve done a great job with duty free there. So we lost a lot of our global distribution which we’d spent the previous 17 months rebuilding.
BRANDS OF ICE WINE FULL
But the winery’s contract with Constellation’s distribution arm ended March 1, 2020, just as the pandemic was taking hold.ĭufour adds: “Just as they were giving us back full control of our distribution Covid hit. US beverage company Constellation Brands, which previously owned Inniskillin, sold its Canadian business to Arterra Wines’ parent company Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in 2016. “Prior to Covid 50% of our sales were in the duty free channel and a significant chunk of the other 50% were in high-end restaurants, so it was a tough year.”
“Our Canadian business absolutely flourished during the pandemic but our exports business struggled,” says Dufour.
Randy Dufour, vice president of exports & travel retail at brand owner Arterra Wines, says the Chinese market has been a godsend throughout the pandemic. Inniskillin is one of the biggest names in Canadian ice wine. This figure will have risen significantly over the past five years and even through Covid the demand from China hasn’t wavered.
However, while Canada sits at the top of the global category, China is fast becoming a key player.Ĭhina is the biggest export market for Canadian ice wine, which in 2016 was valued at US$6.5 million, according to Wine Growers Canada. Moving on 300 years and Canada is well known for its production of ice wine. Ice wine was similarly stumbled across in Germany in the 1700s when a local winemaker decided to press and ferment grapes which had been caught in a frost, and the result was a concentrated, sweet wine.
0 kommentar(er)
