Harvest Moon Estate & Winery Late Harvest Zin and Ice-Style Gewürz - 2 Pack
$39.99 + $5 shipping
CONDITION: Mixed
PRODUCTS:
1 2008 Russian River Late Harvest Estate Zinfandel 375ml
1 2009 Russian River Ice-Style Dessert Gewürztraminer 375ml
CT links above

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Is there a volume listed anywhere? I can't make it out from the picture.

Cesare wrote:Harvest Moon Estate & Winery Late Harvest Zin and Ice-Style Gewürz - 2 Pack
$39.99 + $5 shipping
CONDITION: Mixed
PRODUCTS:
1 2008 Russian River Late Harvest Estate Zinfandel
1 2009 Russian River Ice-Style Dessert Gewürztraminer

Winery website

Can I drink this on its own or will I have to drizzle it on my ice cream? Sweet and Syrupy or with tarty backbone?

Woot! First sucker!

Thank you, David!

I also just beat out my couch-mates klezman, HAK, RichardHod, and Cheron98 and will now have my name in lights forever...

fugrank wrote:Is there a volume listed anywhere? I can't make it out from the picture.

As I was once told: Unless otherwise stated, 750mL is tacit.

How is it "ice-style," but not ice wine? Were the grapes frozen?

edit: I see that the description is serious this time, and describes the process.

fugrank wrote:Is there a volume listed anywhere? I can't make it out from the picture.

When you click the image, they compare against a glass and another bottle. They look decidedly small. 375, I would guess.

I absolutely love sweet wines! In for two!

fugrank wrote:Is there a volume listed anywhere? I can't make it out from the picture.

375, I'm guessing. If you click the picture you'll see the size if the bottles vs. a glass.

joshaw wrote:375, I'm guessing. If you click the picture you'll see the size if the bottles vs. a glass.

Yes, this definitely looks like the ice-style one.

fugrank wrote:Is there a volume listed anywhere? I can't make it out from the picture.

As I was once told: Unless otherwise stated, 750mL is tacit.

update: But the bottles do look smaller in the click-pic. So someone should update the description.

Cesare confirmed them at 375mL.

I love wines from Santa Rosa/ Sonoma County! Anyone have anything to say about the wines from this winery or these 2 in particular?

NightGhost wrote:How is it "ice-style," but not ice wine? Were the grapes frozen?

edit: I see that the description is serious this time, and describes the process.

Yes, my guess is that they threw the grapes in a big freezer after picking them a bit overripe. I don't think it freezes in the Russian River Valley very readily. It should be a decent approximation of good ice wine, but I'm still a bit skeptical. I doubt it's anywhere near complex enough to be a really elegant dessert wine.

jerralb wrote:As I was once told: Unless otherwise stated, 750mL is tacit.

update: But the bottles do look smaller in the click-pic. So someone should update the description.

Also, the winery website only sells these wines in 375mL size. I'm pretty sure it's 375mL.

http://harvestmoonwinery.com/store/zinfandel.html
http://harvestmoonwinery.com/store/gewurztraminer.html

molarchae wrote:Woot! First sucker!

Thank you, David!

I also just beat out my couch-mates klezman, HAK, RichardHod, and Cheron98 and will now have my name in lights forever...

She makes first sucker on her first ever "wine" wine.woot!! Good job!

Traditional ice wine is a great experience and is special to those regions that have naturally frozen grapes. Some regions, like the Palisades in Colorado, only produce ice wine on vintages when grapes naturally freeze. There are a couple cheaters, and the quality is not quite the same. My money goes to supporting the real stuff.

Winedavid39 wrote:375's each.


fixing now. thanks for the heads up.

I can certainly understand a demi-bouteille of a desert wine here, but why the Zin?

Also, what is the pH and TA on the Zin? Is it a port-style "desserty" Zin (I see the RS = 5.5%)?

Is the ice-style wine recommended with dessert or for dessert? If sweet enough, maybe the latter?

NightGhost wrote:How is it "ice-style," but not ice wine? Were the grapes frozen?

edit: I see that the description is serious this time, and describes the process.

k1avg wrote:Yes, my guess is that they threw the grapes in a big freezer after picking them a bit overripe. I don't think it freezes in the Russian River Valley very readily. It should be a decent approximation of good ice wine, but I'm still a bit skeptical. I doubt it's anywhere near complex enough to be a really elegant dessert wine.

Ice wine is produced from grapes frozen on the vine. Anything else is just uncivilized.

lassow wrote:Is the ice-style wine recommended with dessert or for dessert? If sweet enough, maybe the latter?

"For those who can appreciate a truly sweet dessert wine, this rare ICE-style wine is just for you. We recommend this delicacy with your favorite dessert."

NightGhost wrote:"For those who can appreciate a truly sweet dessert wine, this rare ICE-style wine is just for you. We recommend this delicacy with your favorite dessert."

Read that. I'm questioning the recommendation. ;)

lassow wrote:Read that. I'm questioning the recommendation. ;)

Well, of course it doesn't delve into the eventuality that dessert wine IS your favorite dessert, in which case you may enter an infinite loop and fry your internal processor.

NightGhost wrote:Well, of course it doesn't delve into the eventuality that dessert wine IS your favorite dessert, in which case you may enter an infinite loop and fry your internal processor.

Luckily there is only one processor core tasked with that thread so there is at least one more to go.

I enjoy ice and dessert wines, and the Zin sounds interesting. Kind of a quirky little WW offering. In for 2 with fingers crossed...

Hrm . . . I love ice wine and late harvest Zin. This might be too hard to pass up. Woot is making my money saving for that trip to Tokyo difficult! The '08 Zin is selling for $28 on the website and the '09 Ice style is $34. That is a total of $62 plus shipping (for my zip at $24) so this looks to be a good deal!

NightGhost wrote:How is it "ice-style," but not ice wine? Were the grapes frozen?

edit: I see that the description is serious this time, and describes the process.

I guess Ice wine would be frozen by the climate rather than mechanically. As freezing temps generally occur later in the season perhaps the hang time on ice wines are greater than the hang times on ice style wines. Of course these are usually from more northern areas so the grapes barely ripen anyway.

molarchae wrote:Woot! First sucker!

Thank you, David!

I also just beat out my couch-mates klezman, HAK, RichardHod, and Cheron98 and will now have my name in lights forever...

Well done!

WD, see what you and Scott did? One day she's drinking in the basement and the next it's first sucker. I think that 1982 TBA may have tipped her over the edge (That stuff was phenomenal...among my top 5 bottles ever.)

nosnevets wrote:I guess Ice wine would be frozen by the climate rather than mechanically. As freezing temps generally occur later in the season perhaps the hang time on ice wines are greater than the hang times on ice style wines. Of course these are usually from more northern areas so the grapes barely ripen anyway.

In regions that actually produce icewine, you're not allowed to call it that unless the grapes freeze naturally on the vine. In the case of Niagara (VQA rules) you also must meet a strict requirement of brix at pressing to qualify as icewine. If you just barely miss it, you may still qualify for Special Select Late Harvest status, which fetches a lot less $ than icewine, but is still fabulous.

The wines I've had that were frozen after pressing don't tend to start off as interesting and complex as icewine. However, I got to have some 2003 Angel Ice at Scott's yesterday and that was excellent. So I remain open to the "ice wine style" when it's done right.

Oh, forgot to do this last night ...

cjsiege wrote: Upcoming Woot Wine Gatherings…All The News for the week of February 20.
Visit our Wine.Woot Event Calendar on Google Calendar!

February
2/18-21: D&D Weekend
2/26: NorCal #8: Vincent Arroyo, Laura Zahtila, and Eighth Street Winery Tours

April
4/16: Arizona Verde Valley Winery Weekend
TBD: NoVA/DC #23: Spring Fling

May
5/14: CyberPub Cellars Bottling Session #2

June
6/4: Buffalo/WNY #6: Bubbly and Sushi

August
TBD: NoVA/DC #24: Large, Grilled Meat!!!

Looking for some helping hands:

• Missouri Interest Thread
  
• Central NC Interest Thread
  
• Albuquerque Interest Thread
  
• Lake County/Chicago Interest Thread

No events in your area??? Start one! Create an interest thread in the World of Wine Woot Community Tab!

Blah, blah, blah, create yada, yada, yada gathering now. You know the drill.

chipgreen wrote:I enjoy ice and dessert wines, and the Zin sounds interesting. Kind of a quirky little WW offering. In for 2 with fingers crossed...

This is exactly what I was thinking. I'm still not sure if I want to spend this much for 2 half bottles, even though the price is in line for ice wine.

Haven't been paying much attention to wine.woot lately, mainly beacuse it's so cold out for shipping wine, but happened to new wine on Mon Wed and Fri? I was thinking I could wake up and purchase the Wellington 12 pack today.

NightGhost wrote:I can certainly understand a demi-bouteille of a desert wine here, but why the Zin?

Also, what is the pH and TA on the Zin? Is it a port-style "desserty" Zin (I see the RS = 5.5%)?

How does pH and TA matter with dessert wines? If it's important, can we get the pH and TA on the Gewürztraminer too?

mtuhuskies wrote:Haven't been paying much attention to wine.woot lately, mainly beacuse it's so cold out for shipping wine, but happened to new wine on Mon Wed and Fri? I was thinking I could wake up and purchase the Wellington 12 pack today.

around the time amazon bought woot, they started offering something different each day mon-fri and they also did away with wine.woot.com/monday.

Why are dessert wines so expensive? I can understand a price premium on vintage port that has had to be stored, but for such young wines, what justifies the higher price? Are dessert wines more expensive to produce?

SmilingBoognish wrote:Why are dessert wines so expensive? I can understand a price premium on vintage port that has had to be stored, but for such young wines, what justifies the higher price? Are dessert wines more expensive to produce?

Yes. Dessert wines are as concentrated and sweet as they are because they made from grapes which have been partially dehydrated. The method of dehydration varies - in this case, by letting the grapes hang on the vine longer (the Zin) or freezing the grapes (the Gewurz). As a result, though, it takes more grapes to make a bottle of dessert wine, not to mention that a grower typically loses more grapes to mildew and rot (of an ignoble sort) when growing for dessert wine and winemakers are generally more selective about the bunches that they crush when making a dessert wine. Hence, all told, the grape-growing costs for the juice in each bottle are much, much higher than for regular wine.

lassow wrote:Ice wine is produced from grapes frozen on the vine. Anything else is just uncivilized.

fugrank wrote:Is there a volume listed anywhere? I can't make it out from the picture.

Harvest Moon Winery produces around 3500 cases per year. The 09 dessert gewürztraminer production was 272 cases per the website. Late harvest zim doesn't specify. Both of these specialty wines is amazing and worth you consideration if you enjoy dessert wines. No porty- style in this lineup - pure nectar with striking varietal characteristics.