At a recent dinner party we were served this very unusual Martini, an Icewine Martini straight up (a mix of 6 parts vodka and 1 part Vidal icewine), it was just delicious, then with a chocolate dessert was served a Cabernet Franc Icewine also a superb match.

I thought the idea was quite original, I had served and enjoyed icewines over the years but I actually only knew the basics, so the experience prompted me to do more research on the subject, and I thought that it would be interesting enough to share with my faithful readers how it came to be.

Icewine or Eiswein in German exists for centuries and like many food and wine famous creations, evolved from accidental discoveries: perhaps, a long time ago, a some Hun found very frozen wine berries on a hillside, threw them in a jar, forgot about it a while and a few months later remembered the juice, had a taste of it, gave it to his friends and became famous with winos the world over! Well, that's my story, but you see the point. Today, icewine has become quite a complex creation: for the best possible results, only three varieties of vinifera grape and Vidal may be used, but it is usually made from Vidal and Riesling grapes.