Heron Hill's German-style ice wine

Wines & Vines, March, 2005 by Rae Burchfiel

"I know my method for making ice wine is controversial," said Thomas Laszlo, winemaker at Heron Hill Winery in the Finger Lakes region of New York. "But my wines get high ratings."

It was just before Thanksgiving that I interviewed Laszlo for the second time. The first time was after his 2002 Dry Riesling took the Best White Wine award at the 2004 San Francisco International Wine Competition.

Laszlo is a Canadian, and he made his first ice wines in the early 1990s, at Henry of Pelham Winery in St. Catharines, Ontario. He came to Heron Hill in the summer of 2002.

On this visit, I walked the Ingle vineyard with Laszlo and John Ingle, the owner of Heron Hill, to look at the vines that had been set aside for ice wine.

Black plastic nets covered the grapes. The bottom of the nets was closed by white twist-ties. Nets keep the birds out, and they also catch any grapes that fall off the vines.

Laszlo explained that lightweight plastic nets are used by large commercial operations, because tractors lay out their nets. At Heron Hill, nets are put on by hand, in 100-foot sections, so they use heavy-grade netting that can be re-used several times.

The vines must drop their leaves before the nets are put on, because leaves catch in the nets. Picking is done in the dark, by the light of a tractor, so if there are leaves in the nets, pickers can mistake them for grapes. Wet leaves in the nets can also cause disease.

"The grapes are ready," Laszlo said. "We just need a frost. See the color. I want 50% yellow-green grapes and 50% pink ones. The pink ones give the wine a peachy, tropical flavor, but I want enough yellow-green ones to keep the varietal character of the Riesling grapes. Also, the grapes are healthy. Botrytis in ice wine is a sin," he said.

Laszlo likes botrytis--just not in ice wine. His parents were born in Hungary, so he grew up drinking Tokaji, which is noted for its botrytis.

In 1997, Laszlo decided he wanted to be part of the renaissance that was underway in the vineyards of Tokaj after the fall of communism. So he took a job as technical director for the Bordelais-owned Chateau Pajzos and Chateau Megyer. For two years, he lived full-time in Hungary, overseeing production from grape to bottle. In 1998, he made the first Hungarian ice wine--400 liters of it--but Hungarian labeling laws didn't have a category for ice wine. It had to be labeled "late harvest."

In 2000, Laszlo's wife, Jane, became pregnant, and she wanted to raise their child near family. So he bought a house in Ontario and became a flying winemaker, living in both Hungary and Canada. He was also the liaison to North America and Western Europe for Ch. Pajzos and Ch. Megyer. When he was in Germany, he traded his Tokaji for German ice wine.

As we walked between the vines, Laszlo talked again about the harvest. He looks for a high pressure weather pattern, blue-yellow sunsets and daytime temperatures of about 25[degrees]F. When this happens, it is likely that the nights will reach the ideal picking temperature of 18[degrees]F. He also looks for a night without wind. Wind stirs up air barriers, and can cause the grapes to thaw.

"If the grapes have gone through a few frosts, the wine will have more character, but the longer you wait, the more grapes you will lose and the more sorting you will have to do to get rid of rotten or imperfect grapes," he said.

At Heron Hill, the pickers need about four hours to pick the crop. In 2003, they netted three-fourths of an acre, or about 2.5 tons of grapes. Laszlo would like to get about 4 tons per acre, so that each vine yields a good crop. If the crop per vine is too small, the grapes will ripen too quickly, lowering the acid.

The best time to harvest is late November to mid-December. "It's hard when we have to pick on Christmas, but it happens," he said.

"If the grapes are harvested in January, some will be dehydrated, and they will have less acid. The sugars also increase, so it may be necessary to go for higher alcohols to reduce the residual sugar."

I asked him why he thought his methods for making ice wine might be viewed as controversial.

"I do everything the opposite of the New World paradigm," he responded. "The standard is a cloying, carmel-colored ice wine with high residual sugar. I want my wine to be slightly sweet and crisp, with an almost water white color. I want it to be identified by aroma and taste as Riesling."

Laszlo thinks that the Canadian legal minimum of 35[degrees] Brix encourages the idea that more sugar is better, so Canadian ice wines can be overly sweet and lack varietal character. German law sets an equivalent of about 26[degrees] Brix as a minimum, and he feels that is about right. "The best ones I've tasted were the leanest," he said. He likes his residual sugar at 12-14%.

His goal is an edgy wine with a razor-sharp edge. He wants his wine to clean the palate, leaving resonating flavors--intense, but like a laser. With the 2003 Heron Hill Riesling Ice Wine, he hit his ideal numbers: 12.1% residual sugar, 9.5% alcohol, 13.5% TA and a pH of 2.95.