Saw this on the supermarket shelf the other day and it piqued my interest, both because it's a dessert wine made of Riesling and it's (ostensibly) an ice wine too. The Seifried website says this wine is made "in the style" of an ice wine, and that the grapes are pressed frozen (whether on the vine or not - the site isn't specific).
Although this wine is under screwcap, I swear there's a slightly corky flavour on the nose that hasn't blown off with swirling. It's the same slightly musty note one sometimes observes in aged Rieslings and Semillons - quite attractive actually, but unexpected in this wine. It's otherwise a lovely, if subtle, nose of intense, musky florals and sweet candied fruit. The palate is strikingly sweet from the very first moments of the entry onwards, and shows a flavour profile approaching delicate marmalade. Good complexity and, in spite of the level of sweetness, quite a linear structure, owing to well balanced acidity. So, it's a sweet wine, to be sipped rather than gulped, but it's not broad or sloppy in the least. The after palate tapers off gently, towards a delicate finish of good length.
I enjoyed this wine very much, and would probably choose to serve it with a dessert of equal intensity, perhaps with both in small quantities. A big experience in miniature, as it were.
Seifried Estate
Price: $NZ25 (375ml)
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: December 2007
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