Cellaring ice wines

[Fugu]

Does ice wine benefit from cellaring like sauterns? I can never get a straight answer from the people at LCBO or at Vintages.

[Fengyi]

From what I've understood from meeting and talking with people involved in the Okanagan-side of Canadian Wine making, cellaring Icewine essentially results in very little change and/or bottle maturation. The sheer amount of sugar in the wine inhibits the ageing process greatly. I think this may be rather like the case of Tokay Essentia where bottles age at an incredibly slow rate. Certainly in cases where I've tasted older icewines, they certainly do not age as quickly as Sauternes do.

However, it's always worth an experiment or two or three....but i should think that you'll have to cellar them for decades to get any appreciate degree of ageing...good luck!

[Brad Ballinger]

I'm going to focus in on one word you included in your question -- Does ice wine benefit from cellaring...?

Benefit lies in the palate of the drinker. What do you like in your sweet or dessert wines? Do you like the sugar to be prominent, entirely noticeable, and -- well -- sugary? Do you prefer the sugar to have an aged, brulee-like flavor profile?

You mentioned Sauterens in your question. As they age, the sugar in Sauterens loses it's "sweetness" and takes on other flavors, some of which others have called almost a burnt-like quality (hence, my use of the word bulee above). And I've tasted some wines that may have been sweet when young, but are DOA decades later.

So, as with any wine, it depends on how you wish to enjoy ice wine. If the matter is of extreme importance to you, you can always buy an old bottle trhoughh an auction website and try it side by side with a younger one to see which style you prefer.