ed Fraser Gallop Estate converted many who had previously shunned dessert wines with its 2013 Ice Pressed Chardonnay at the Margaret River Gourmet Escape festival over the weekend.The ice wine was created by Clive Otto, winner of the prestigious Decanter World Wine Award for best Bordeaux red blend in 2009, together with young winemaker Kate Morgan, founder of the Ipso Facto label.
The wine-making process involves freezing whole bunches of Chardonnay grapes, which allows only the most concentrated sugars to be pressed out.
The juice is then fermented with indigenous yeasts in French oak barrels, producing a wine that balances sweetness with a crisp acidity.
Production of ice wine is highly labour intensive as it requires the whole crop of frozen grapes to be picked within a few hours. Most of the world's ice wine is produced in Canada and Germany, with Ontario producing up to 75 percent of the global supply.
