Saslove, Gewurztraminer Ice Wine Tasted 
 06.07.2010
 By: Daniel Rogov

This morning a very comfortable breakfast meeting with Barry and Roni Saslove. In addition to discussing various developments at the winery (including the move to go to kashrut as discussed on another thread), one of my goals was to taste the ice wine made by Roni. Available only at the winery and made in a very limited quantity (about 200 500 cl bottles were made), the wine was sampled in Roni's case with pancakes, in my own with a croquet madame. Tasted not at all blind as we sat out-of-doors, the wine and the company provided great pleasures.

Saslove, Gewurztraminer Icewine, 2009: Made by selecting late harvest grapes and exposing them in a special container to alternating temperatures of well below zero degrees Celsius and very close to zero, much as would be the case in nature and then pressing the grapes gently, this allowing the sugar to become extremely concentrated. On the nose and palate tropical fruits, mandarin oranges, apricots and spices. Generously sweet but with fine balancing acidity. Straightforward but full of flavor and very appealing with a fresh, long finish. A fine first effort. Drink now-2015. Score 89. (Tasted but not blind 6 Jul 2010)