By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Region Editor This short film is a combination of harvest images I shot in January and a recent interview with Leonard Oakes Estate Winery winemaker Jonathan Oakes about the progress of this 2011 Icewine of Vidal Blanc.
By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Region Editor The landscape along the Lake Ontario shoreline-hugging roadway that stretches eastward to Orleans County – Route 18 – pretty much becomes desolate once you pass Olcott. And it only seems more desolate at four in the morning on the coldest day of the winter. Lyndonville’s distance from the center of the Niagara Wine Trail keeps me from making this journey as often as I’d like to, but on this morning there was no hesitation – it was Leonard Oakes Estate Winery’s annual ice wine harvest. As I made my way through an apple orchard…
By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Region Editor Jonathan Oakes and his crew were in the vineyard early this morning collecting frozen vidal blanc grapes for Leonard Oakes Estate Winery‘s 2012 Icewine of Vidal Blanc. With a call time of 4 a.m. the crew got the last grapes into bins by 7 a.m. and have already begun pressing.
By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Correspondent The more I get out and see what some other wine regions sell as dessert wine, and specifically how much they charge, the more I realize just how precious the climate of the Niagara USA wine region really is. While they do get a lot of local press, it's great to see national recognition of these small wineries' icewines. Schulze Vineyards & Winery just received a gold medal for their 2008 Vidal Icewine at the Riverside Wine Competition in California. Ann and Martin Schulze were thrilled when they read the news on the New York…
By Melissa Dobson, Finger Lakes News Correspondent Mention ice wine and most everyone thinks of Canada and the Niagara Ice Wine Festival held each year in Niagara-On-The-Lake, now in its 14th year. Although Niagara On-the-Lake, Ontario may be the first region to come to mind, New York's producers are looking to show off their offerings and educate wine lovers on the distinctiveness of their ice wines during the first New York Ice Wine Festival being held at Casa Larga Vineyards in Fairport, NY just outside of Rochester. Kicking off on February 8, 2009 and running through the month of February,…
By Bryan Callandrelli, Niagara Correspondent This year’s Niagara region ice wine harvest is underway, with three local wineries braving temperatures that barely broke single digits (windchills were well below zero) to collect those precious frozen grapes during seemingly perfect harvest conditions. The harvest window this year was a long one, as frigid temperatures have lingered in the region for several days. Niagara Landing in Cambria, Schulze Vineyards & Winery in Burt and Leonard Oakes Winery in Medina all had crews out last week collecting either Vidal or Catawba grapes. Domenic Carisetti, winemaker/consultant for all three wineries, was busy overseeing the…
By Bryan Calandrelli, Niagara Escarpment Correspondent One of the coolest parts about living in an area with a burgeoning wine region has to be the fact that you get to literally watch history unfold. Of course, some history takes place outside in the kind of cold that burns your lungs and freezes your eyeballs, but when I regain feeling in my fingers I’ll be able to look back on January 3 of this still-new year as the date that marks the first local harvest of ice wine grapes at not one but two local wineries. When temperatures dropped into the…
Photo taken by Dominic Rivard. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2. I’ve long loved ice wines and ice-style wines (those that are made by frozing grapes in a commercial freezer rather than leaving them to freeze on the vine). The best versions are rich, succulent and sweet…but always have a burst of fresh acidity that brings balance and life on the palate. So, it is with much pleasure that I announce Wine Blogging Wednesday #27, hosted by the Kitchen Chick. The theme is Icy Desserts — ice wines that is. Luckily, she’s not being a stickler, so…