Sweet & Frosty: The Best Ice Wine Cocktails Recipes

Cocktails are every partygoer’s best friend. They come in many different forms and are made from numerous ingredients. While they typically contain spirits, you can also prepare them with wine. And some recipes even call for ice wine. In this article, we will discuss the most delicious ice wine cocktails:

• Ice Wine & Whiskey
• Ice Wine Sangria
• Ice Wine Manhattan
• Frosty Pom Martini
• Ice Wine Cosmopolitan
• Ice Wine Royale

Before we talk about the recipes, let us have a brief look on how ice wine is made and how to make a great ice wine cocktail.

WHAT IS ICE WINE?

Ice wine is a unique type of sweet dessert wine. It originated in Germany, but today, vintners in Austria, Canada, and other countries with cold climates produce it as well.

Vintners do not harvest the grapes for ice wine until early winter when frost sets in. The grapes and the liquid inside of them freeze. But a bit of juice remains fluid, and all the grape sugar concentrates in this juice. From this sweet syrup, vintners can make extraordinarily sweet wines that are low in alcohol but rich in taste.

Typically, they have aromas of honey, citrus, and tropical fruits. If aged in oak barrels, they also develop nutty aromas. Together with a good level of acidity, these characteristics make delicious dessert wines.

WHAT IS A COCKTAIL?

Cocktails are drinks made from two or more ingredients, and usually, at least one of those is alcoholic. The most common ingredients are spirits like vodka, whiskey, or gin, and non-alcoholic mixers such as juices, soda water, and soft drinks.

Cocktails containing red or white wine are less common, but nevertheless, you can find hundreds of delicious recipes with red, white, fortified, and sparkling wines. Of course, ice wine cocktails exist as well.

HOW TO MAKE A GREAT COCKTAIL

To enjoy an ice wine cocktail to the fullest, you need the proper glassware. And to prepare it, you need a couple of tools and the right ingredients.

The Proper Tools for Making Ice Wine Cocktails

Preparing a cocktail includes measuring, slicing, and mixing the ingredients. For these purposes, you should have the following tools at hand:

• A shaker with a lid is essential for mixing liquid ingredients properly.
• To find the right proportions, you need measuring cups in different sizes.
• A mesh strainer helps you filter unwanted solids like ice when pouring a cocktail into glasses.
• If you prepare your cocktail with fruits, you also need a knife and a cutting board.

The Right Glasses for Ice Wine Cocktails

Of course, the right glasses to present your creations to your guests are important. Wine glasses can be appropriate, but in most cases, they are not. Depending on the type of cocktail, you might need glasses in different shapes:

• Rocks glasses are stemless glasses with broad, round bases.
• Long drink glasses have a smaller base but are significantly taller.
• Martini glasses have a long stem and a wide, cone-shaped bowl.
• Pitchers or punch bowls are the right choices if you want to prepare multiple servings.

The Right Ingredients for Ice Wine Cocktails

When making ice wine cocktails, the ingredients’ quality determines the drinks’ final taste. If you follow these simple guidelines, you will get the best results:

• Ice wine is typically expensive, even when you go for an entry-level wine. So do not go for high-quality styles when buying ice wine for cocktails.
• The same rule goes for spirits. You should not go for the cheapest bottles for ice wine cocktails, but it does not make sense to use high-end styles either.
• Juices are best when you press them from fresh fruits.
• Also, choose self-made ice from spring water over prepacked ice from the supermarket.

The Right Ice Wine for Cocktails

When looking for the right wine for your ice wine cocktails, consider these bottles:

Inniskillin Vidal Icewine 2019

• type: white, dessert wine, Vintage
• origin: Canada, Ontario
• varietal: Vidal
• alcohol: 9.5%

Tomasello Vidal Ice Wine 2019

• type: white, dessert wine, Vintage
• origin: USA, New Jersey
• varietal: Vidal
• alcohol: 12.5%

Inniskillin Cabernet Franc Icewine 2019

• type: red, dessert wine, Vintage
• origin: Canada, Ontario
• varietal: Cabernet France
• alcohol: 9.5%

THE BEST ICE WINE COCKTAIL RECIPES

With the best practice for making ice wine cocktails in mind, let us know talk about recipes. The following list is just a small collection, so there definitely are more cocktails to discover. Nevertheless, these drinks are a good place to start:

Ice Wine & Whiskey

Ice wine and whiskey might sound like an odd combination at first. But actually, the two complement each other superbly. While the ice wine brings sweet aromas of fruits and honey to the table, the whiskey adds a smooth and smoky warmth. The result is one of the strongest but also most delicious ice wine cocktails.

Ingredients

• 1 oz Vidal Ice Wine (white)
• 1 oz whiskey
• 1-2 oz Cabernet Sauvignon (Old World)
• soda
• 1 Strawberry for decoration

Instructions

If you want to serve your guests the Ice Wine & Whiskey cocktail, you must plan a couple of hours ahead. The reason is that you have to prepare special ice cubes. You also need a proper ice tray to do that. Additionally, get a shaker and a rocks glass. This is how to make this ice wine cocktail:

1. Mix 50% with 50% Cabernet Sauvignon wine, and fill the mix into the ice tray. Put it into the freezer.
2. As soon as they are ready, fill the wine-ice cubes into the glass. Depending on their size, you need 1 to 3 of them.
3. Mix the ice wine and the whiskey in a shaker. Shake properly.
4. Pour the mix into the glass.
5. Decorate the glass with the strawberry.

Ice Wine Sangria

Sangria is a typical summer drink that you can prepare in large volumes to serve a group of people. You can easily transform it into an ice wine cocktail that is fantastic in winter, too. With its low alcohol content, you can enjoy Ice Wine Sangria without the fear of getting too tipsy. And the various fruity aromas make it a very refreshing experience.

Ingredients

• 8 oz Vidal Ice Wine (white)
• 1 ½ oz raspberry liqueur
• 16 oz white grape juice
• 8 oz club soda
• ½ cup of red berries (for instance: raspberries, strawberries, cassis)
• 1 lime
• ice cubes

Instructions

Sangria should always come in a pitcher so that you can serve an entire group of guests. That is true for red wine as well as ice wine cocktails. But do not worry if you do not own a pitcher. Use a punch bowl (or a salad bowl) instead. These are the steps to prepare Ice Wine Sangria:

1. Fill the ice wine, the liqueur, the juice, and the soda in the pitcher. Stir properly.
2. Cut the lime into wedges, and add it to the pitcher.
3. Add the berries.
4. Chill the pitcher for at least 2 hours in the fridge.
5. Fill ice cubes into a long drink glass and pour the Ice Wine Sangria in.
6. Add some of the fruits and serve.

Ice Wine Martini

You probably know the Martini from James Bond movies. It is a classical vermouth cocktail enriched with vodka. The Ice Wine Martini is a variation of this famous drink. It contains ice wine instead of vermouth, making it sweeter and less bitter.

Ingredients

• 1 oz Vidal Ice Wine (white)
• 2 oz vodka
• 1 white grape
• crushed ice

Frosty Pom Martini

You can never have enough Martini recipes, so here is another one: Frosty Pom Martini. It is an advanced version of the Ice Wine Martini with additional ingredients that enhance the flavor profile with sweet and spicy notes. It is a perfect Après-Ski cocktail and makes a cozy evening in front of the fireplace even cozier.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ oz Riesling Ice Wine (white)
• ½ oz vodka
• 2 oz pomegranate juice
• 2 oz ginger ale
• crushed ice
• honey
• milk chocolate
• pomegranate seeds

Instructions

For mixing a Frosty Pom Martine, you not only need more ingredients; you also need additional equipment. So make sure you have a shaker, a big Martini glass (or a long drink glass), and two plates at hand. The plates must be larger than the opening of the Martini glass. Here are the instructions:

1. Slice the chocolate into very fine rasps.
2. Prepare one plate with the rasped chocolate and the other with a thin film of honey.
3. Dip the rim of the Martini glass carefully into the honey first and the chocolate second. When done right, the honey will make the chocolate stick to the glass rim.
4. Fill the shaker halfway with crushed ice.
5. Add the ice wine, the vodka, the pomegranate juice, and the ginger ale.
6. Shake until you feel the shaker getting frosty.
7. Stir the mix carefully into the glass without washing off the chocolate.
8. Garnish the drink with a couple of pomegranate seeds.

Too complicated? Check out this video by CTV Vancouver to see how to prepare the cocktail.

Ice Wine Cosmopolitan

Speaking of classics: The Cosmopolitan is another famous drink that you can transform into an ice wine cocktail quickly. The original is made primarily from vodka. In the Ice Wine Cosmopolitan, you have to replace about half of the vodka with ice wine.

Ingredients

• 1 oz Riesling Ice Wine (white)
• 1 oz vodka
• ½ oz Grand Marnier
• 1 ½ oz cranberry juice
• ½ oz lime juice
• crushed ice
• citrus peel for decoration

Instructions

A Martini glass is the right glass for serving a Cosmopolitan (with or without ice wine). To prepare the drink, you need a shaker. Follow these steps:

1. Fill half of the shaker with crushed ice.
2. Add the vodka, the ice wine, the Grand Marnier liqueur, and the juices. Shake until the shaker gets frosty.
3. Strain the mix into the pre-chilled Martini glass.
4. Garnish the glass with citrus peel.

Ice Wine Royale

FINAL WORDS

While it is absolutely reasonable to reject diluting a precious beverage like ice wine, you might be surprised how delicious ice wine cocktails taste. When popping open your next bottle of frosty wine, save a little bit to prepare some ice wine cocktails with it. You might fall in love with them.