Andy, Assistant Marketing Director at Hunt Country Vineyards, here. Looking forward to this foray into new territory. Ask me anything...I might even have an answer for you!

Damn. Finally something right up my alley, and no shipping to SC.

andyathuntwines wrote:Andy, Assistant Marketing Director at Hunt Country Vineyards, here. Looking forward to this foray into new territory. Ask me anything...I might even have an answer for you!

So if we wanted to cellar these for a while, how long can the cellar for? That is, what would be their drink by date?

LAB RAT REPORT

Hunt Country 2007 Vidal Blanc Estate Bottled Ice Wine (blue bottle)

First let me set the scene and create the ambiance with a disclaimer. I am a neuroscientist with an extensive knowledge of craft beer. So be prepared for some science diversions and beer connections.

I pull the bottle out and see it is an ice wine and my heart sinks. I am not a sweet taste person. I drink my coffee black and adore overly hopped IPAs. But this will be a good opportunity for me to think outside the box and expand my horizons. I’ve had ice wines at a few vineyards in the US, but I’ve never been able to taste much beyond the cloying sweetness.

The bottle gets chilled for a bit in my freezer. The ice wine pours a beautiful golden color - like an Austrian Pilsner minus the carbonation and head. The bottle and cork smell of pineapples - no hint of booze. While the density is thicker, it is not too thick or syrupy.

The nose is really amazing. I love the tropical fruit smell - like pineapple and dried apricots making love. Okay, maybe that is a bit much - but I’m drawn to it and I appreciate that it is a very natural smell that is not too cloying or boozy.

First sip - I only taste the sweetness. It feels like syrup on my tongue and sliding down my throat. Ick. Just as I had feared! But before I can allow myself to admit another ice wine defeat , I take another sip. This time I get the symphony! There is a fruit “burst” on my tongue. Singing in the taste buds. My taste buds stand up at attention and get excited. It is the tropical fruits with this citric acid-y (in a good way) taste that gives me something akin to a Pavlovian salivary response. It is like having a very good dry wine or a subtly sour beer - it makes your tongue crave more. I’m totally blown away by how different it is from my first sip.

My subsequent sips make me forget the original syrupy sweet transgression and my tongue continues to stay enchanted. It is almost refreshing like cold apple juice - I think it is something akin to citric acid. It calls me to drink more. But what about food pairings?!? Often with high residual sugar beers, people pair them with sweet things - this is also how I’ve had ice wines in the past. But the idea of something sweet now sounds like sacrilege! Instead I pick up some Wheat Thins and some Parmesan (just the store brand shredded in a pouch - nothing fancy but def better than the powdered mess from a can). The saltiness is like the conductor to the symphony on my tongue (yes, I realize how cheesy that sounds). The counter point is amazing to me - and it just further enhances the pineapple and the juiciness of the wine. I could imagine this served with any good salty, hard cheese - maybe an aged Manchego or some Parmesan not sold in a pouch? With high quality cheese, I can imagine nothing short of the Overture of 1812 complete with fireworks. It would be a great end of meal nibble or an afternoon reprieve. Then I try the wine with a dense Ghirardelli chocolate brownie- just to make sure I’m not missing anything. The combination makes me sick in my stomach and takes away the symphony and replaces it with syrup. Definitely not a pairing for my tongue - although I can imagine others might have a different experience if their tongues are more tuned to the sweetness chord.

After 20 minutes in the glass, no further enhancements were made in the wine that were perceptible to me. But while it warmed up I liked it no less - I was still under its spell.

Bottom line: Ice wines are certainly not my favorite beverage, but this one enchanted me when I was expecting something more like drinking flavored simple syrup.

Thanks be to the wine woot gods for gifting me this extraordinary opportunity! And thanks also to those who have made it through my intense diatribe - I hope you find it helpful, if not amusing.

PS I’m having some friends over tonight (Friday) and I will try to solicit a few more opinions to share. I want to see if anyone else gets a symphony or if their tongues only hear sad 80s ballads.....

Hunt Wines


CT Links:
2007 Hunt Country Vineyards Vignoles Late Harvest

2007 Hunt Country Vineyards Vidal Blanc Ice Wine

Hunt Country Vineyards Estate Bottled Finger Lakes - 3 Pack
$44.99 + $5 shipping
CONDITION: Sweet
PRODUCTS:
2 2007 Late Harvest Vignoles - 375ml
1 2007 Vidal Blanc Ice Wine - 375ml
CT links above

Winery website

Facebook
Twitter
Yelp

How does this Vidal compare/contrast to Inniskillin's Vidal Ice Wine?

MarkDaSpark wrote:So if we wanted to cellar these for a while, how long can the cellar for? That is, what would be their drink by date?

Dessert wines, as long as they're stored in a cool, dry place, cellar really well. It wouldn't be outlandish to keep them for another 3-5 years. Make sure to store them upside-down on our their sides; we do use natural corks in these bottles!

As a newbie labrat, I was glad to see the 2007 Vidal Blanc Ice Wine delivered to my doorstep. Immediately opened the bottle and gazed at the honey colored wine. The aroma was of honey and pears. The taste reinforced the aroma but also had a hint of pineapple. The sweetness reminded me that it would be a great wine for dessert. I paired the wine with some cherry pie and ice cream, the flavors went together perfectly. Must say, I was impressed.

courcelles wrote:Damn. Finally something right up my alley, and no shipping to SC.

I was thinking the same thing. Except that I'm in Iowa, which is a state that allows direct shipping of wine to customers, and I've ordered from Wine.woot a few times before with no issues. Yet today it's not on their list for some reason.

Wow winery involvement right from the start, impressive glad there's other crazy east coasters still awake at 1am on a work night like me!

Share some links: tasting notes on the vidal de blanc here.

As a New Englander who went to college in upstate NY I'm intrigued that Woot finally got to feature wine from this region! Because of my copious spending on the Woot-off I am on the fence for now...I'm going to be interested to see what the rats have to say about this one...

Edit: and while I was hunting up links, the labrats already started checking in! Awesome, and encouraging thus far

Now I wish I hadn't gone in three times during the woot-off. Finger Lakes is an autobuy for me (and worldofjohnboy, I imagine).

Looks like this winery is on the west fork of Keuka Lake, just opposite our coffee roasting friends.

Have a great sale. I'll be in as soon as I convince SWMBO that I'm not a complete alcoholic.

Oh now this is an interesting offering. I've been wanting to get some Ice Wines but they've always been (in my opinion) unreasonably priced. I'll be interested to read some of the commentary this go around and see if I can talk myself (or is it out of?) a set of these.

Nice job on first suckage Sparky.

A short explanation on shipping...we try and add each state as it opens its doors to direct shipping. While Iowa & South Carolina do have shipping permits in place, we have not yet been gratned our license to ship to those states. Iowa was a recent addition (they used to be a reciprocal state) and South Carolina will only grant 2 year permits on an even year cycle. Trust me...it only gets more confusing! I'm so sorry that we can't ship to everyone on here today...don't worry, you are on our list for the future!

Side note: many of our customers in Iowa & South Carolina have our wine shipped to family and/or friends in neighboring states where we are licensed to ship...just saying

tracyjilldoty wrote:LAB RAT REPORT

Hunt Country 2007 Vidal Blanc Estate Bottled Ice Wine (blue bottle)

Bottom line: Ice wines are certainly not my favorite beverage, but this one enchanted me when I was expecting something more like drinking flavored simple syrup.

Thanks be to the wine woot gods for gifting me this extraordinary opportunity! And thanks also to those who have made it through my intense diatribe - I hope you find it helpful, if not amusing.

You're entire post reminded me of Amadeus. I don't even drink wine (yet I read comments on wine.woot on a daily basis), but that was a great review. I can only hope my palate gets to that point some day with beer.

I'm curious, have you ever tried any Boulevard beers from Kansas City? If so what did you think?

Teehee.


"from the vineyard that brings ice wine to the White House" but you can't order it in DC.

wordek wrote:Wow winery involvement right from the start, impressive glad there's other crazy east coasters still awake at 1am on a work night like me!

Share some links: tasting notes on the vidal de blanc here.

As a New Englander who went to college in upstate NY I'm intrigued that Woot finally got to feature wine from this region! Because of my copious spending on the Woot-off I am on the fence for now...I'm going to be interested to see what the rats have to say about this one...

Edit: and while I was hunting up links, the labrats already started checking in! Awesome, and encouraging thus far

Finally! My insomnia actually pays off!!

MaxHedrm wrote:Teehee.


"from the vineyard that brings ice wine to the White House" but you can't order it in DC.

We can ship direct to customers in DC. But you're right, we don't have a distributor in DC to sell to restaurants or liquor stores at this time...

wow, a place close to me.
too bad i dont care for dessert wines

Since I'm in Ithaca, I was wondering where are you guys located (which lake?), and also how do you make your ice wine? Lakewood ice wine is made by them picking grapes and freezing them, how about you guys?

Chiefsfan42 wrote:You're entire post reminded me of Amadeus. I don't even drink wine (yet I read comments on wine.woot on a daily basis), but that was a great review. I can only hope my palate gets to that point some day with beer.

I'm curious, have you ever tried any Boulevard beers from Kansas City? If so what did you think?

Oh wow! Thanks for the compliment. Beer is my first love, but wine makes a good mistress on the side. My taste buds have ADD - I constantly need to indulge their desire for something new. There are lots of similarities in beer and wine tasting. I find the lab rat reports to be a good level ground for developing your taste - a lot of reviews using easily accessible language to describe wine.

I definitely have heard good things about Boulevard, but the last time I had a chance to taste one of their beers, there were many other beers in attendance vying for my attention. Next opportunity I'll treat it like a first date.

tiger7610 wrote:Since I'm in Ithaca, I was wondering where are you guys located (which lake?), and also how do you make your ice wine? Lakewood ice wine is made by them picking grapes and freezing them, how about you guys?

I was in Ithaca last weekend

They are located on the northwest side of Keuka Lake
4021 County Road 32, Branchport, NY

lassow wrote:How does this Vidal compare/contrast to Inniskillin's Vidal Ice Wine?

We tasted as LabRat's today and have tasted Inniskillin many times before and I would say that this wine is at the very least comparable to Inniskillin and in some respects I would choose it above Inniskillin.

tiger7610 wrote:Since I'm in Ithaca, I was wondering where are you guys located (which lake?), and also how do you make your ice wine? Lakewood ice wine is made by them picking grapes and freezing them, how about you guys?

We're on the northwest flank of Keuka Lake (about 1.5 from Ithaca, we're the Y shaped lake). We make our ice wine in the German tradition. We actually leave the grapes out on the vine to freeze naturally. We then hand-pick the frozen grapes, that's a fun job!, and press the grapes while they're frozen. This enables us to produce a true ice wine and even though it's a lot of worth, boy is it worth it!

myraparker wrote:We tasted as LabRat's today and have tasted Inniskillin many times before and I would say that this wine is at the very least comparable to Inniskillin and in some respects I would choose it above Inniskillin.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It's truly an incredible wine; not something I drink often, but it's so good on those special occasions when I open a bottle.

ahh crap, I didn't notice that Iowa was not an available shipping state until I already placed the order. Who can I contact to have the shipping address changed to my family member in Illinois?

mturczak wrote:ahh crap, I didn't notice that Iowa was not an available shipping state until I already placed the order. Who can I contact to have the shipping address changed to my family member in Illinois?

I'm not sure how to change the address with Wine.Woot! I just looked in the FAQs and didn't see anything about how to correct a shipping address. You can always email me directly (Andy@HuntWines.com) with your name/address and then the name/address of who you'd like it shipped to if you can't figure it out with the folks at Wine.Woot! We can try and sort it out on our end, but it'd be best if there is a way to do it with Wine.Woot! Hope that helps...

mturczak wrote:ahh crap, I didn't notice that Iowa was not an available shipping state until I already placed the order. Who can I contact to have the shipping address changed to my family member in Illinois?

service@woot.com will help you out.

Well, I picked up nine bottles of dessert wine back in November, so I'm stocked for now - but I've gone ahead and recommended this offer vociferously to friends and family on Facebook.

I'll definitely be in if you guys come back later in the year

My girlfriend and I love late harvests and ice wines from the finger lakes. We were up by Keuka Lake in August. Every vineyard we went to was an enjoyable experience, and Hunt Country as no exception. We picked up a bottle of the Late Harvest (along with some other wines they had) but opted not to spring for the ice wine at the time. Happy to get another shot at it on woot in a deal much more suitable for our budget!

What would be ideal storing and serving temperatures for these wines, even though storing part will be a little difficult because the bottles are too long for my wine cooler? And thanks for the upside-down storing tip, Andy. Forgot or didn't realize they used natural cork.

michaepf wrote:Well, I picked up nine bottles of dessert wine back in November, so I'm stocked for now - but I've gone ahead and recommended this offer vociferously to friends and family on Facebook.

I'll definitely be in if you guys come back later in the year

Thanks for sharing the offer!

javadrinker wrote:Oh now this is an interesting offering. I've been wanting to get some Ice Wines but they've always been (in my opinion) unreasonably priced. I'll be interested to read some of the commentary this go around and see if I can talk myself (or is it out of?) a set of these.

Nice job on first suckage Sparky.

Thanks ... It's good to be the king!

spk1321 wrote:What would be ideal storing and serving temperatures for these wines, even though storing part will be a little difficult because the bottles are too long for my wine cooler? And thanks for the upside-down storing tip, Andy. Forgot or didn't realize they used natural cork.

Most wines store best around 50-55 degrees F. Ice wines are served best a bit cooler, around 45 degrees F. The Late Harvest Vignoles would be the same. And yes, those corks can be annoying to remove if they haven't been kept moist...plus it helps to keep the wine longer if the corks aren't allowed to dry out!

tracyjilldoty wrote:
It is the tropical fruits with this citric acid-y (in a good way) taste that gives me something akin to a Pavlovian salivary response.

lol, props for the Pavlov reference!

The plus side: I love me some ice wines. Unlike lab rat #1, I have a fondness for the sweetness.

The down side: I find myself skeptical of a wine from New York. It's my west-coast arrogance.

Hmmmm, quite the dilemma.

Greshmahg wrote:The plus side: I love me some ice wines. Unlike lab rat #1, I have a fondness for the sweetness.

The down side: I find myself skeptical of a wine from New York. It's my west-coast arrogance.

Hmmmm, quite the dilemma.

Hello, my skeptical friend...

Well, I do enjoy wine from the west coast and, obviously, I really enjoy east coast wines. I will ask this, how often does a west coast winery have a chance to make an ice wine? Just saying...

andyathuntwines wrote:I will ask this, how often does a west coast winery have a chance to make an ice wine? Just saying...

We have ONE in Nevada! Haven't tried it yet...still need to get around to that.

Greshmahg wrote:The plus side: I love me some ice wines. Unlike lab rat #1, I have a fondness for the sweetness.

The down side: I find myself skeptical of a wine from New York. It's my west-coast arrogance.

Hmmmm, quite the dilemma.

Don't be. There's a lot of good Ice Wine and Late Harvest coming from back east, especially Finger Lakes area.