Aldi eiswein (ice wine)

Z

zag

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Has anybody here tried the ice wine (eiswein) for sale in Aldi - [broken link removed] ? I saw they had it a few weeks ago, and I see that they have it on again this week.

The thing is that eiswein normally costs around €70-80 per bottle here and they are selling it for €9.99 - seems like a bit of a bargain.

I am pretty sure that eiswein is a protected name (like Champagne) so that they can't sell something that is like eiswein using that name, so I presume it has to be the real thing.

Anyone here get any of it last time and have any comments on quality ?

Cheers,

z
 
Eiswein is made after the first frosts have concentrated the full flavour of the grape by freezing it on the vine. I've not tried the one in Aldi but had several when I was in the uk. Never paid more than £10-15 for one, so wouldn't be alarmed about the cheap price. Maybe its so cheap cos it's an own-brand?
 
I only know about the Canadian ones like Jackson Triggs and Inniskillen and they are all up around the 70 mark for c375ml bottle. It could be late harvest wine rather than true ice wine but hey it's a cheap risk.
 
I agree - it's well worth giving it a shot anyway. I was just wondering whether anyone here had tried the Aldi one.

z
 
It's a 50cl bottle - smaller than the average size bottle. Perhaps that accounts for the less than average price. Going to try it anyway.
 
If you buy it straight from the vintner in Germany it doesn't cost anywhere near €70, I can assure you!! In German, Eiswein (and it's slightly poorer cousins Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese) are usually sold in 37.5cl bottles, and from memory you'd pay about the same for one of those as you would for a 75cl bottle of good quality 'normal' wine. I've still got some from waaay back, maturing nicely. It goes a beautiful deep golden colour as it ages, and sems to get slightly sweeter too.

If the Eiswein is produced in Germany, you can be damn sure it's the real McCoy. The vineyards have to get approval from the powers that be to be able to sell it as such, they can't just bottle any old stuff and call it Eiswein, in much the same way as thy can't call any old wine Spätlese or Auslese, for example.
 

I think the only real definition in use in Germany is the must weight or sugar content (potential alcohol) so effectively it means that it is a medium sweet wine I think, I don't know anything about the own brand Aldi wine and it doesn't give any information on the link posted. It might be one of the Liebfraumilch type exports judging by the German classification system for wine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QmP

Most likely it's got added sugar in the process too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaptalization

I don't believe there is cheap natural ice wine as opposed to freezer grapes stuff as it's just too expensive to produce but would love to be corrected as we had ice wine last Xmas and I would love another bottle but am struggling to pay the full whack in Redmonds of Ranelagh.
 
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