How long should Ice wine be aged in either bulk aging (leaving it in the carboy) or in bottle aging?
Or does the aging process only depend on the type of grape being used?
1 Answer
Ice wine is usually aged in bottles rather than barrels but traditions vary. The usual advice is to leave the ice wine to mature slowly for a few years at the minimum but other say it can be drinkable before that. Few recommend drinking ice wine (or any wine) before one year. Ice wines can change noticeably over time and usually improve steadily with increasing years in the bottle. IMHO the best ice wines I have tried have been decades old - I still have a langenlonsheimer Louerweg 1973er that will improve for another decade yet!!
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I'm using a winemakers kit ("WineXpert Speciale Riesling Icewine"). Is the aging process still years? (My kit had no instructions about how long to age, unfortunately) Commented Jan 23, 2017 at 20:24
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1II have no experience of this kit and they say it is "ready in 6 weeks" but as a general rule wine needs many months if not years to condition well and more time is usually better than less time with full bodied sweet wines.. The honeyed taste of an ice wine does not really develop until (say) 6 months in the bottle. However if the brew tastes nice then what is to stop one drinking it. Perhaps drink a bottle every month and see how it progresses! Commented Jan 23, 2017 at 22:48
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Aha! I finally found their website. They explicitly say to wait AT LEAST one month, but more than 3-6 months is preferred. So your experience is concurred, thank you for your help! Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 0:24