Maple Ice Wine

A friend and I bought a bottle of Winegarden Maple Ice Wine for a hoot this evening, over a game of Scrabble. We found it in a New Brunswick wine co-operative in the City Market. Neither of us had ever heard of maple wine at all, and though it would be interesting. How do you ferment maple syrup? What does it taste like? Is it sweet? So we bought it.

Winegarden is a New Brunswick winery in Baie Verte, on the upper North Shore. We’re not known as a wine producing region, but we have several warm zone climates due to our proximity to the water. Winegarden produces several other fruit oriented wines such as Apple Cide, Elderberry, Blueberry, etc. We had heard of all those.

It’s a lovely light brown colour, like maple syrup. The flavour in the mouth is quite good, like maple syrup, but it’s a little harsh on the throat. It’s sweet, but not overpowering like regular maple syrup. Local Guy kind of liked it, and said it was more like a liqueur. So maybe we should pour it over ice. My friend thought we should cook chicken in it. For now, it's back in the bottle.