Welcome to New Wine Blog!!

It gives me great pleasure to welcome and introduce a new wine blogger, Canada's well known
John Schreiner.
I have had the pleasure of knowing John for many years. John has had a long and distinguished career as a reporter and writer. He began as a reporter for the Regina Leader-Post and subsequently became the newspaper's chief political reporter in the Saskatchewan Legislature. In 1961 John joined the staff of The Financial Post in Toronto. Served in the paper's Montreal bureau from 1967 t0 1969 and in 1973 became the bureau chief in Vancouver for that newspaper. John "retired" in 2001 but has been busier than ever adding to his already impressive list of 15 books on wine.
John has also been the regional correspondent for Appelation America.
So now he has added blogging to his endeavours and you can click on
"John Schreiner on Wine" in my links list or follow this link to his blog
The first Canadian Icewine was made by Walter Hainle in 1973 in Peachland in the Okanagan and yes it was several years before Ontario started making icewines.
John is the world most knowledgeable expert on Icewine or Eiswein and his book
Icewine-The Complete Story is a must read for anyone wanting to learn more on this fascinating wine. I did a post on the 2006 Icewine harvest in BC and you can scroll down in my December 2006 archives to Dec. 3 to get John's take on it.
Welcome John!! I am sure we will get many informative and entertaining posts.
Speaking of entertaining, I have just put a link to "My Favorite Canadian Wine Lady"
in my links list. Follow the link and have a look. She has a great newsletter that you can sign up for. I don't know how she does it all. Daenna is a very knowledgeable (and beautiful) wine lady and she is the Diva of wine. Welcome to my links list Daenna.
So there you have it. I am off to Italy on September 17th but will get one more post in on "politics" and wine before I go. Pliny the Elder has been quoted as follows. "It has become a commonplace proverb that in wine there is truth" Yes and isn't it too bad that so much in the way of politics is commonplace as well.

A Pressing Problem.....!

An excellent review of wine press terminology and types of presses available today, may be found in the reference library at WINE BUSINESS.com
As well an interesting article in the January issue of Wines&Vines discusses the re-appearance of basket presses on winery cellar floors. Basket presses use the force of grape against grape as opposed to grapes being pressed against a screen. This less grinding action
results in less extraction of harsh components from grape skins and seeds. According to some winemakers this results in higher quality wines.
While basket presses are still used in the making of Icewines,(scroll down to my Dec. 3 Entry) bladder presses are faster and more efficient. The first Willmes bladder presses appeared in the 1960s and resulted in a significant increase in German Eiswein production. Icewine grapes in their frozen state are as hard as marbles and require considerable pressure to extract their golden nectar. The bladder can be inflated rapidly and result in a fast extraction of the juice. By Icewine law grapes must remain in their frozen state while being pressed. So time is of the essence. The newer versions of bladder presses are gentler and operate at lower pressures so as not to impart harshness to the must but are also slower. If temperatures rise before the extraction is complete, the grapes will thaw and cannot be used for Icewine. One of British Columbia's best Icewine producers, the Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery in the Okanagan Valley, snapped up the old Willmes presses when the German Eiswein producer Schloss Schonborn, replaced their presses in the mid-1990s. So there you have it. Basket presses may be making a comeback but not in the Icewine sector.
As always my thanks to the world renowned Icewine expert, John Schreiner for his invaluable information on Icewines.

British Columbia picks grapes for Icewines!!

A sudden cold snap in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, the home of some of the best Icewines in the world and vintners were taking advantage of the early frosts to pick the grapes for the 2006 harvest. I was looking for some global warming experts to get them to explain the more than two feet of snow that got dumped on our usually mild and snowless Vancouver Island. I could not find any of them. Maybe they were buried in the snow.The rosebud in the vase is posing on my sundeck railing along with the unexpected frosty precipitation.
In a direct communication with the world renowned expert on Icewine, John Schreiner, and I quote: "Any vintner that failed to pick icewine grapes this year should not be in the business. It was magnificently cold for three or four days … not just nights, but days. It was possible to pick in the day and I imagine most did. " and "the 2006 icewine vintage will be outstanding because it was early, when the grapes were full of healthy fruity flavours..... bursting with fruit character of an early freeze wine." John's book entitled simply "Icewine" is the ultimate book on Icewine. Follow this link to get John's perspective on the 2006 vintage. One of my favourite BC wineries is Tinhorn Creek. They produce the only Kerner Icewine in Canada. Lush and flavourful, its one of my favorites. I expect their Icewine and many of the BC Icewines to walk away with multiple medals when they are released. Try and get some and you will taste what God must be drinking from Icewine Paradise here on earth.