ICEWINE: EXTREME WINEMAKING
By DEAN TUDOR
ICEWINE: Extreme Winemaking is mainly by Donald Ziraldo, who, with winemaker Karl Kaiser, founded Inniskillin Wines in 1974. It was the first small and new winery in Ontario, Canada, since 1929.
There’s a foreword from Hugh Johnson, an icewine flavour wheel from Shari Darling, some notes from John Schreiner’s book on Icewine, scientific notes from Karl Kaiser, and recipes from the late Izabela Kalabis-Sacco pulled together by Lyn Ogryzlo.
The promotion bumpf says, « A gorgeous collection, with full-colour photography and delicious recipes that explains the art behind Canada’s wine delicacy ». They forgot to include that the book also contains a big whack of scientific and technical data, with copious charts, graphs, and tables, compiled for the most part by Kaiser. He has all the figures for the history of Inniskillin icewine, including — on a year by year basis — harvest brix, harvest temperatures, acid levels, ABV, residual sugars, all from 1983 through 2006 (the latter was harvested in January 2007).
Dean Tudor is a food and wine writer. Member of Wine Writers Circle of Canada. Professor Emeritus of Journalism, Ryerson University, Toronto. www.deantudor.com