COLD AS ICE

By CINDA CHAVICH

Canucks are known the world over for their uniquely northern libations, from Canadian Club whisky and Newfie screech to unctuous ice wines.

But there’s a new tipple from Quebec that’s making its mark – a delicious dessert wine known as ice cider.

Like our famous ice wines – which, by law, must be made from grapes that hang out on the vine until the temperature dips to -8ºC – ice cider is made from apples that freeze when the mercury dips, something as natural as sunshine in the great white north. The heavy sweet juice is then fermented over the winter, for six months in cold conditions, resulting in layers flavours, the essence of rich baked apples seasoned with nuts, caramel and honey.

There’s been a bit of an artisan cider renaissance in recent years. Like the traditional ciders of Britain, Normandy and the Basque regions of Spain – made with apples with unlikely names like Foxwhelp Bittersharp, Newton Pippin, Somerset Redstreak, Ida Red and Brown Snout - a new generation of cider makers here are now using these tart and even bitter-flavoured heirloom apples to make their dry artisan ciders. Different cider apples, like different grapes, have unique flavour and aroma profiles, from bittersweet to sharp, so the best ciders are blended from several different apple juices. The resulting brew in nothing like the sweet soda-pop-like drinks that have long masqueraded as cider here, with flavors ranging from yeasty and dry, almost Champagne-like, to tart apple with a bitter edge, not unlike a softly-hopped and slightly sweet Belgian beer.

Many of Canada’s artisan hard cider makers – from Domaine Pinnacle and La Face Cachée de la Pomme in Quebec to County Cider in southern Ontario – make hard cider in the drier European style and use the same apples, hanging longer on the tree, for their sweet ice ciders. It’s the freeze/thaw cycle that changes the flavour of the apple juice, removing excess water and concentrating both the sugars and the bright malic acid found naturally in apples.

While some ice cider makers claim to press frozen apples for their ice cider (30-50 apples in each 375 ml bottle), Hanspeter Stutz, who makes spritzy Stutz cider in Nova Scotia, says he creates his lovely Pomme D’Or dessert wine by simply freezing the juice of his Northern Spy, Russet and Coxcomb apples to remove excess water before fermentation.

Fry cider, like wine, can match with a variety of foods, but there are typical dishes created with hard cider to try while you’re enjoying a glass. In Paris bistros, you might try pork, braised in cider with cream and served with French lentils, or roast duck, cooked in sparkling cider with morel mushrooms. In Spain, you may be served hake or cod, simmered in the local light, dry cider of Asturias.

Ice cider, on the other hand, is like ice wine or Sauternes, sweet, fruity and best consumed with foie gras, cheese or fruit desserts like tart tatin. Or try it after dinner on its own – like an apple pie in a glass.

TASTE REPORT

If you like ice wine, you’ll love the fresh flavour of ice ciders – a sweet treat at often half the price of ice wine.

Pinnacle Ice Cider from Domaine Pinnacle in Quebec (www.icecider.com), is served in top Montreal restaurants like Globe and L’Express, and is sold in government and private stores across Canada ($25-$33). Deep amber in colour, with nice clean, apple acidity shining through the sweet baked apple and caramel flavours, Pinnacle ice cider is also made in a sparkling style, Cidre de Glace Petillant ($30), the fine bubbles adding a festive texture and lift to this sweet after-dinner drink. A recent deal signed with French Cognac-maker Camus, will see Pinnacle ice cider products sold in duty-free shops around the world.

A stop at an SAQ (Socièté des Alcools du Quebéc) store in Montreal uncovered some unctuous examples of local ice ciders – noteworthy was the Frimas ($45) from La Face Cachée de la Pomme (www.appleicewine.com), made from apples frozen on the trees all winter (50 apples in each 375 ml bottle) it’s a wine with a deep golden colour and even some of those rich honey and nutty flavours that come from  ‘noble rot’ in Sauternes.  Their Neige is half the price, and a little lighter in colour and flavour.

There are others, too, like Pommes Sur Neige ($40/200 ml) from Les Vergers Lafrance and Pomme de Glace ($22/375 ml) from Close Saint-Denis, with its aromas of baked apples and cinnamon. All available in Quebec only.

The County Cider Company in Ontario’s Prince Edward County (www.countycider.com) are now making an ice cider to add to the line of dry artisan ciders they sell in through LCBO stores in the province. At Domaine de Grand Pré in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley (www.grandprewines.ns.ca), Pomme d’Or sweet apple wine is available from the winery.

(first appeared in up! magazine)

                                                            ©Cinda Chavich

www.tastereport.com