Ice Wine Pairing

Ange: Well hi everybody I’m Ange from I Yellow Wine Club and today we’re at Reds in the financial district downtown Toronto with one of the top sommelier in the city, Taylor Thompson. I’m happy to be here Taylor, thanks for the invite over the Reds. Taylor: We’re happy to have you as usual. Ange: And we’re going to be trying some wine today. Well I shouldn’t mention that you are a recent recipient of the annual wine tasting challenge here on Ontario, aren’t you? Taylor: Yeah, it was that basically applying taste in the seven wines and I come up with the crave and the country, an affiliation and the vintage and there’s a point scoring system so I had a really good day and I came out on the top. Ange: Nice, well congratulations that’s awesome. Taylor: Thank you. Ange: How many wines did you go thru? Taylor: Seven wines, three reds, four reds. Ange: Nice, so what was your score? Taylor: 48 out of 62 Ange: Nice that’s very great. I probably couldn’t get that much.00:00:49 Taylor: I don’t remember what that score was too. Ange: Yea. Well okay, so we’re going thru a bunch of wines today. You’re going to sort of go thru wines, their tasting and how to match them with food at home as well as how to match food in restaurants, right? Taylor: Absolutely, wine number one, this is a wine that caught my attention two years ago instantly as it was the worlds first Shiraz Ice Wine. Very fitting that my branch and Ozzy on Australia would come over and make the worlds first Shiraz Ice Wine. Ange: And it has been done a few times in Niagara, hasn’t it” Taylor: It has been done a few times, yeah I believe that Wayne is doing the Shiraz Ice Wine now as well so its certainly was the plain here Shiraz Ice Wines. Now, what’s really interesting about this ice wine is that this Shiraz vines we’re originally planted to be dried Shiraz. Now in Niagara, its particularly the micro-climate that military has. They’re more going to get the ripeness that they need to produce a dry shiraz so Ice Wine in that case became the savior as that didn’t mean for it to be an ice wine and lets just leave the grapes on the vines and see what happens. Well on the hole they made the worlds first Shiraz Ice Wine. The is the old 06 vintage, it actually has its own claim to fame because in the sera domnts competition in 2008, this actually took second place and that is shiraz from all around the world to know you’ve got this going up against the coat routie and it comes second place that’s pretty unbelievable. Ange: So we should be doing cheers to Canadian Ice Wine. Taylor: Absolutely. Ange: This is great, okay, so let’s go thru tasting here. We’ve obviously got some great riedel ice wine glasses. Taylor: It’s a great vessel. Ange: Alright so maybe you could lead us thru a quick ice wine tasting, as one of the tops wine tasters in the city, what do you look for in an ice wine? Taylor: Okay, well for me an ice wine got to be a great bounce of fruits and acidity. People don’t realize that when we concentrate in the grape you’re not only concentrating on the fruit but also the acidity in the wine so that the ice wines come out quite acidic and quite fruity and if you achieved the balance between the fruit and the acid then you got a successful ice wine. Ange: So, a successful ice wine to you is one that creates balance, not only sort of on the nose but also on the pallet so you get that little bit of acidity but you also get that fresh sweetness that makes it the deserve one that it is. Taylor: Absolutely and right here at the I got a lot of strawberry and rhubarb pie going on, it’s something else. Ange: Absolutely. Taylor: What I really like to pair of with ice wines is sorbets, now you can get sorbets anywhere and if you pick up an ice wine, pretty much at any LCBO. This Pillitteri Shiraz Ice wine is only available at the Vineyards, one of the ten ice wines that we serve here at Reds and we serve eight of those pitted glass, and we use sorbets. I’ll use a red color sorbet with a red color ice wine sorbets are very sweet and very highly acidic and I think balancing them off with a sweet and highly acidic ice wine is pretty perfect so it’s a great way to finish off. Ange: Well this got a really nice honey note to it like I feel like 00:03:43 that always linger and has a great texture and quality to it but I just get that honeycomb feel that would match really nice thing with some cold ice cream, washing it down now. Taylor: Yeah, absolutely, you can even put honey on the ice cream after and maybe we got a whole new thing going on. Ange: Yeah, maybe. So this is a half bottle here, I know that ice wines come in full bottles and half bottles, you guys sell the half bottle and the bottle here at Reds as well. Taylor: Yes, exactly, we sell the wines by the glass and by the bottle and like all Canadian products, we put a fairly easy mark up on the wines, we’re really trying to get the wine out there. I really want people to come in and try the shiraz ice wine. Ange: Well if you try anything from a Canadian level one prospective you definitely want to try an ice wine, I mean, this one thing that will blow you away and it’s a worldly recognized wine that comes from our area. People put a lot of emphasis on the fact that Canadians make ice wine and we do that really well. So we talk about the match with the sorbets, how can people match ice wine at home and not a lot people go, “oh I like ice wine but a full bottle? I’m not going to necessarily open it, its going to last me a week”, even though it can last a week in the fridge. What can people match that’s at home? Taylor: I think you can pair it of with just a little any sweet desert. You just have to remember that the wine has to be sweeter than the food to create a perfect pair and the ice wine is great with a huge variety of deserts. Ange: If you remember nothing else from the segments that’s definitely one thing to remember when pairing ice wine with anything at home or in a restaurant. You can always ask your sommelier but always remember that the ice wine should be sweeter than the desert and one great thing that I would say that you didn’t mention us before but I can knock in this ice wine is like a grandma strawberry rhubarb pie will go amazing with this ice wine. So, well thanks Taylor, this is Ice Wine 101 with Taylor Thompson. Cheers!