TN: Frogmore Creek Iced Riesling 2008

[Waiters Friend]

I believe it was a bloke called Andrew Hood who first made 'ice wine' in Tasmania, by freezing the juice and removing the frozen water to concentrate the juice and therefore the sugars. As far as I know, Mr Hood was either responsible for making this wine, or was the consultant to the winery.

Yellow gold in colour - not as dark as I was expecting. The nose shows a balance between fresh and developed fruit characters, with lime and lemon (not surprisingly) dominating. There's some orange peel, ginger marmalade as well as a touch of dried apricot. The palate is quite light (not the intense characters you get from botrytis) yet there's some concentration and focus. Acidity is supporting only, without being overly 'zingy'.

It's an interesting wine. It doesn't have the richness and weight of a Sauternes style wine, but it definitely has tension and balance, and is one of the best non-botrytis dessert wines I have drunk in the last few years.

Cheers
Allan

[Redav]

We've had a couple of these over the last few years and like it so it's nice to see someone more knowledgeable than I to post some notes on it. Any thoughts whether there'd be any benefit to cellaring it? I've gifted it a few times thinking it was a drink soon wine.

[Waiters Friend]

G'day Redav

I doubt this would significantly improve with more age. If you have some of 8+ years of age, try it soon and see how it suits your tastes.

And post! Please tell us about it.

Cheers
Allan