Icewine Cocktails Chill Summer's Heat

Written by the Tidings Staff | 27 July 2009

What if you could put winter in a bottle and save it for when you really need an arctic chill? That is precisely what Icewine can do.

Icewine is made during the deepest, darkest part of our Canadian winter, when the temperature dips below -8° C. The grapes are harvested in the bone-chilling snowy weather. It’s definitely a labour of love as frostbitten fingers and near-frozen toes are not something that anyone looks forward to in February,” says Del Rollo, Director of Hospitality at Jackson-Triggs.  “But the resulting Icewine makes it worth the effort.”

During the dog days of summer, when we’re looking for relief from summer’s sizzle, there’s a cold blast of winter to be found cocktails made with Icewine. Rollo, the former assistant manager and sommelier of Truffles in Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel, has developed a number of cocktails that are a guaranteed restorative when heat and humidity sap our strength and spirit.

“The tropical fruit flavours of peach, apricot and mango, the hallmarks of Icewine, are what we crave in the summer,” says Rollo. “But it is the additional crisp acidity found in Icewine that makes these cocktails refreshing.”  

Here are Rollo’s Top Five Icewine Cocktails:

Frosty Sunrise

Emerald Ice

Cool Hawaiian

Ice Queen

Classic Icewine Martini