A sip of chilled ice wine always sends a shiver down my spine. That’s not just the cool sugary embrace of the golden liquid, or the tingle of crisp acidity. It’s the very thought of winter-time grape pickers heading out at night in Canada or Germany to pull the hard bullets of frozen grapes from stiff frosty vines... Ice wine has an extraordinary intensity. When a winery presses the super-ripe frozen fruit, only a concentrated syrup oozes out to be fermented, because much of the water is retained as ice. That gloopy elixir contains very high levels of sugar, acid and other natural flavours. For a few, the resulting wine is simply much too sweet. But to its fans, ice wine gives a quite extraordinary joy. It’s expensive stuff, the richly textured, honeyed wine that tastes of citrus peel, ripe quinces, baked apples and pears and tart grapefruit. Note the prices below are for half-bottles (actually, just the right size for four, as a 75-100ml glass per person is enough). The high cost is because it is extremely difficult to make in any significant quantity, only produced when there is a hard freeze of below -8 degrees, and even then delivering just a very small amount of wine per vine.

But now ice wine is more widely available in the UK. Lidl’s is brand new on the shelves and at £14.99 will make an ice wine more accessible than ever before. It comes from Canada, as do most examples on sale in the UK. Germany is the other major producer of ‘Eiswein’, though the style is also made in Austria, Alsace, Hungary, the USA, even China, and other regions where a hard frost is common.top 10 wine based cocktails Ice wine is not made from ‘nobly rotten’ grapes affected by botrytis cinerea like the great dessert wines of Bordeaux, the Loire, Austria and Hungary. purchase wine online discountThe grapes for this style of pudding wine should be clean of rot, and the result more pure and brightly fruity than the more complex, rounded and long-lived botrytis-affected wines. book of wine labels

They are created from many different grapes, but especially those which resist rotting as they hang on the vine through the autumn and into winter time. Riesling and the hybrid vidal are the usual candidates though cabernet franc is sometimes seen for a pale red version. Although rich in sweetness and acidity, ice wines are lighter in alcohol than many wines, usually weighing in around 8-11% abv.where can i buy red wine hair dye I prefer to drink them on their own, a small glassful proving the perfect, refreshing, palate-wakening way to end a rich feast. best wine to go with fishOther like them with food, taking their sip with salty blue cheeses or pairing them with hot fruit puddings like tarte tatin.wooden wine boxes to buy Either way, Christmas should provide a good moment to chill out with an ice wine.

Here are five to try. Ice wines for Christmas Pillitteri Estates Winery Vidal Icewine 2013, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada (Lidl, £14.99/half-bottle) Lidl’s new ice wine is excellent value and delivers salty grapefruit, tart pineapple, and a hint of lychee. Sweet and sour notes, nicely balanced. Trius Vidal Icewine 2014, Nova Scotia, Canada (Aldi, £24.99/half) Deep golden, with baked apple, pear and greengages all drizzled in honey. Very sweet indeed but beautifully balanced with just enough freshness. Darting Estate Fronhof Riesling Eiswein, Pfalz, Germany (Marks & Spencer, £20/half) Lively, crisp flavours of whistle-clean grapefruit and tangerine peel - a proper wake-up call for the taste buds. A delicate 8% alcohol. Peller Estates Riesling Icewine, Niagara Peninsula, Canada (Majestic, £35/half) Peller has won many accolades and this exquisite cocktail of ripe apple and oranges has super-sweet honeycomb finish. NB: Great Western Wine of Bath (01225 322810) has a full range of Peller ice wines.

Changyu Golden Icewine Valley Vidal 2009, China (Berry Bros & Rudd, £19/half) Here’s something very different to uncork at Christmas; a Chinese ice wine. It has some sweet cereally, biscuity and golden syrup notes as well as plenty of juicy citrus.Ontario-based winery Pillitteri Estates Winery will see its Vidal Ice Wine go on-shelf nationwide from 26 November [rrp £14.99/37.5cl]. Export Manager Jared Goerz told the drinks business the ‘”very aggressively” priced wine was possible primarily because of the large volumes Lidl was taking – around 16,000 L in total. ”We take no or minimal margin but was wanted to make it available and let people learn about it,” he said. “Lidl took a leap of faith, which is especially [brave] for a European supermarket. We are all very exciting and wanted to help them with this.” Until now, Pilliteri’s icewine has been primarily available in the on-trade in London through its UK importer and distributor, Dudley Craig Wines, who also stocks a selection of Pilliteri’s table wines.

It is also available through Laithwaite’s. “The UK market has been growing market for us – it is a litmus for the wine world,” Goerz added. Currently, around 40% of Pilliteri’s business currently comes from exports, largely due to the “toughness” of the monopoly system domestic market, and it currently exports to around 35 countries worldwide. The wine, which comes from 15 year old vines on Pilliterri’s estate on Niagara-on-the-Lake, is harvested in December or January, once the vines have been at a temperature of -8 degrees for 3 days. The estate produces around 200,000 L of icewine per year, with half from its Vidal vines and the rest split between 12 different varietals. Other icewines it produces include Riesling, Sangiovese, (which is popular in Japan) and Cabernet Sauvignon, alongside its flagship Cabernet Franc and other table wines. Along with Riesling, Vidal is one of the most suitable grapes for icewines, he pointed out, being hardy and reliable and producing a lot of fruit flavour.