Some of New York’s best wines will be on display this Saturday at Casa Larga Vineyards for the tenth annual New York Ice Wine and Culinary Festival.
A relatively rare product, ice wine is made from grapes that are left on the vine past the traditional harvesting season in autumn and are instead picked in the dead of winter when temperatures are below freezing. After they’re picked, the grapes must be pressed within the hour in order to maintain their desired flavor. This practice is considered risky and labor-intensive, leading many wineries to avoid producing ice wines at all. For those who do go through with this process, the reward is a frozen grape that carries less water than a normal grape, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied dessert wine.
Casa Larga, Hazlitt 1852, Schulze, Leonard Oakes Estate Winery, and Hunt Country Vineyards will all have their award-winning ice wines available to taste and purchase.
For food, this event will serve ice wine–inspired dishes such as braised pork belly steamed buns glazed in a sweet and spicy Asian ice wine sauce, sweet potato gnocchi tossed in ice wine sage cream sauce, and heirloom caprese salad with blood orange ginger ice wine vinaigrette.
Festival attendees can also look forward to live music and entertainment, vendors, vineyard horse-drawn wagon rides, winery tours, and ice wine and food pairings.
Tickets for the New York Ice Wine and Culinary Festival are available at casalarga.com.
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