Impress Guests at Your Dinner Party by Serving Ice Wine

Many people serve wine at their formal parties and dinners, but you can make a distinct impression on your guests by serving a rare type of wine called ice wine. Most of the patrons at your dinner party will have not heard of this particular form of wine and it will cause your dinner party or social occasion to be the talk of the town.

Ice wine is a type of wine that is produced only under certain conditions and in specific areas, the Pacific northwest region of the United States is particularly known for the production of ice wine. Due to the specific area and specific conditions that the wine is produced in, this type of wine is extremely rare and consequently extremely expensive.

In the production of ice wine, specific weather conditions are very important since the winemaker has to prepare the ingredients necessary to take advantage of the weather to produce this type of wine. The ingredients of ice wine include: fully ripened grapes and temperatures below 5 degrees Celsius. Combining these two relatively simple ingredients may sound simple in theory but as any winemaker who produces ice wine can tell you, nothing could be further from the truth.

To produce ice wine, the ripened grapes should be frozen naturally by the cold external temperatures and picked at night by hand when the air is coldest. The frozen grapes should be lightly pressed to extract only the juice, this is pivotal since the frozen water crystals in the grapes contain pure water and fermented sugars and juices, these frozen ingredients combine to make ice wine.

Finding ice wine to purchase is almost as difficult a proposition as making it, since many retail stores rarely sell such an expensive type of wine. Only specific types of ice wine may be stocked at specific wineries in your area and may be horribly expensive. One of the best ways to purchase ice wine is an often unexplored source for most wine enthusiasts: the internet.

Searching the internet to find a particular type of ice wine may prove to be more hassle than most people hosting a dinner party or social engagement are prepared to encounter. For someone however looking to make an impression or someone seeking to have an interesting and engagement part, serve ice wine and your guests will be impressed.

References
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine
2. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-ice-wine.htm