Domaine Pinnacle Ice Cider

[Gifted Gourmet]

A couple of months ago, I had inquired about locating a kosher eiswein .. and, with everyone's help, finally came up with and ordered Yarden Vineyards Heightswine 2000 .. and it was divine! It lived up to the true wine connoisseur's review many times over .. thank you, Rogov!

Now I have finished the bottle (with some assistance!) and have located something else which I must try: Domaine Pinnacle Apple Cider .. also kosher and from Canada ... Domaine Pinnacle Ice Cider

Question here is this: has anyone either here in the states, or in Canada, tried this wine?

If so, your impressions?

[mrbigjas]

a friend of mine had it in a tasting where he also tried a 1977 port of some sort. he thought it was more interesting than the port.

and this isn't a novice like me--he's old school edumacated wine guy.

unfortunately it's not available here in PA or i'd give it a try myself.

[Gifted Gourmet]

unfortunately it's not available here in PA or i'd give it a try myself.

←

I had a tough time tracking it down here in Georgia .. went through a Savannah distributor and then found a distributor in Atlanta who then sent me to a beverage center in Roswell, Georgia ... not easy when it comes from Canada ...

but I am nothing if not determined ...

[carswell]

More specifically, Pinnacle is from the Eastern Townships of Quebec, a few miles north of the Vermont border. Sweet but not cloying, in part due to the acidity; slightly syrupy texture; pure and intense apple cidery flavour; long finish. Some find it a bit lacking in the complexity department and for that reason prefer the products of La face cachée de la pomme, especially their high-end Frimas, which gives the best ice wines a run for their money. Both products are widely available in Quebec. For U.S. distributors, e-mail the contacts listed on the respective websites.

[docsconz]

I have had it and indeed have some in my cellar. I procured it in Montreal . It is delightful and well balanced. I will have to follow Carswell's advice next time I am in Quebec, though and seek out the Frimas.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Went to the liquor store where my "trail" left off and found the apple wine .. refrigerated it ... now, I am in love! What a remarkable wine! Beautiful flavors and a little tartness ... amazing! Worth my long search!

[Daniel Rogov]

The Pinnacle Ice Cider may be lovely but no matter how we stretch it, it just ain't "wine".

In re the above (a) Call it fruit wine if you must but true wine is made from grapes and (b) call me a curmudgeon, but do think of the kosher laws about wine - the rules that apply to true wines (that is to say, those that are made from grapes) do not even apply to fruit wines.

Although I have nothing at all against fruit wines which can be refreshing, fun and even sometimes exciting, there has never been and will never be a great wine made from apples, watermelon, bananas, or, for that matter, turtles.

Keeping not so much the faith but certainly tradition.

Best,

Rogov

[carswell]

The Pinnacle Ice Cider may be lovely but no matter how we stretch it, it just ain't "wine". 

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Just so we're clear here, one participant in this thread unfortunately called it apple wine (assuming the Pinnacle ice cider is what she was referring to, that is). As far as I know, no producers or promoters do.

[...] Call it fruit wine if you must but true wine is made from grapes [...]

That definition may work for you but it's hardly carved in stone. Check just about any standard English-language dictionary (Merriam-Webster's "the usually fermented juice of a plant product (as a fruit) used as a beverage"). Check the Oxford Companion to Wine ("alcoholic drink made by fermenting the juice of fruits or berries").

Although I have nothing at all against fruit wines which can be refreshing, fun and even sometimes exciting, there has never been and will never be a great wine made from apples, watermelon, bananas, or, for that matter, turtles.

Setting aside discussion of your apparent ability to see into the future, I hope you are excluding ice ciders from this sweeping dismissal. If you aren't, then I have to ask: have you ever tasted one of the top-drawer ice ciders from Quebec?

[Gifted Gourmet]

I have just throroughly read these critics' reviews and found some difference on this as being either a fruit wine, a cider, an apple beverage in the area of wine nomenclature.... Some brief reviews all showing the different "appelations":

Great mouthfeel, nice alcohol/fruit/sugar/acid balance. Finish is long and clean. Lovely drink, will probably age well, likely becoming more complex with age.

Larry Paterson, Wine Reviewer, www.littlefatwino.com

The apple equivalent of grapes' icewine... a fresh, cool and delicious drink.

Elizabeth Baird, The Toronto Sun

Perhaps the (Eastern Townships) region's best apple beverage is... "ice cider," a hard cider fermented from partially frozen fruit in a style that mimics a sweet ice wine. Our favorite, (Domaine) Pinnacle, makes a perfect complement to one of Quebec's other specialties, foie gras.

Patricia Harris and David Lyon, Boston Globe

While I am not exactly sure of what category this falls into, I do know that it is a most enjoyable, engaging treat as a dessert or accompanying a dessert ... or even foie gras!

[Gifted Gourmet]

true wine is made from grapes

On the ways of making various wines, a brief, but related, question please, Rogov:

Is sake actually a wine? It is made from rice rather than grapes ...a bit more ...

[Daniel Rogov]

With regard to the ice-ciders of Quebec, I have indeed tasted and enjoyed several. I'll even go as far as to say that some, in addition to being excellent, are absolutely delicious. Apologies to the Oxford Companion and Jancis Robinson, but I'll stand by my definition of "true" wine being made only from grapes. What the heck, if we can't disagree from time to time with Oxford and the Brittanica, with what can we disagree?

As to Sake, which I also enjoy at times, as much as it is sometimes thought of as rice wine, I have always considered that the processes by which it is made put it more into the category of beer than wine.

As to my "ability to see into the future", in this case no apologies necessary to Nostradamus, but I claim no such powers. It should be fairly clear, however, that as we will never see a great wine from Emerald Riesling, Concord or Traminer (not Gewurztraminer but Traminer) grapes, we shall not see one from apples. Or, as I say, from turtles.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Chilled the Domaine Pinnacle last night and reveled in the clean Granny Smith opening taste ... what a marvelous drink that is!

Wine, schmine .. I love this heady brew of tart and sweet pommes which has a softly tantalizing mouthfeel ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

the history of ice cider is relatively new: it is a signature Quebecoise product developed in 1989, a spin-off from the ice wine production that took off in Ontario in the 1970s.

The man generally credited with the creation of cidre de glace is Christian Barthomeuf, the cider maker at Domaine Pinnacle and the owner of his own vineyard, Clos Saragnat, both in Frelighsburg.

“One day, I was very depressed,” he said. “And I thought, why don't I try something new?”

Having made ice wine, he hit upon the idea of ice cider. “And it worked, and here we are,” he said.

New York Times Travel

[tim]

Hi,

It sounds like apple jack based on the production method.

It also sounds wonderful. Years ago, I heard about Canadian calvados and never found the product. This could be heaven on earth.

Tim

[Daniel Rogov]

With all due respect to the New York Times (for which I do hold in very high regard), they are a bit off on this one. The first equivalent of frozen cider, along the lines of ice-wine, originated not in our time in Quebec but in the early 1720's in France when many of the apples of Normandy froze on their trees, were harvested and pressed while still frozen, the liquids thus containing a higher concentrate of sugar in order to allow fermentation of a strong and intense form of cider.

Today, even in years when the apples do not freeze on the vine this ice-cider is still made using cryo-methodology at the facilities where Calvados is made.