Iced Vine

Heavy frost and thick mist this morning. Full of promise for a good day though as the sun was struggling to break through. I've photographed an iced vine tendril and strands of gossamer against the orb.

We had Ice Wine (Eiswein in German) with our Christmas pudding this year for the first time. When I became interested in wine in the early seventies German wines were very popular. We sampled plenty of wines from there with special attributes, Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese and Beerenauslese but never Trockenbeerenauslese or Eiswein.

Our Christmas day Eiswein, made from grapes hand-picked whilst frozen, was from the Durkheimer Steinberg vineyard. Dark, full-flavoured and very complex, actually not that sweet.