Sweet wine...

[ruthless29]

Ice wine is pretty expensive and its not something you could repeatedly buy. Is there anything that tastes similar to it without costing nearly that much? Or what about sweet wine in general... I know LCBO has those labels 0,1,2,3 for the degree of sweetness but I still have not found something that compares.

Any suggestions?

[Strangehate]

Some German wines are sweet.

[nalababe]

Try a late harvest instead...I actually find that the ice wine is too sweet in some instances and prefer the late harvest. Much cheaper.

Try a botrytis/sautern. Concentration is by fungus instead of ice...Noble1 is excellent though still 30$ per half bottle...actually this is our preferred dessert wine since the McWilliam's versions are not available.

Try ports i.e. a tawny or lbv as a vintage port would be expensive

For non desert wines, try any of the gewertzaminer or others from Alsace.

[Initial_C]

well, usually anything that sweet isn't a wine anymore I've noticed. You get into liqueurs.

That being said though... I like Wild Vines. It's not a true traditional wine though. Basically they take wine and enfuse fruit flavours into them I believe. Or something like that. They're not found with the regular wines but in another aisle. They're sweet. I really enjoy the strawberry white zinfindel and the peach chardonnay. It's pretty cheap if I recall. It's like $7-$8 a bottle I believe. A big bottle is like $12.

Here's the link:
www.wildvines.com

[gh05t]

A womins favourite is always Spumante Bambino. Sparkly plus sweet enough for the feminine palate.

Martini and Rossi is similar.

Riunite which is a California wine I never saw in Canada has sweet peach flavoured etc. So maybe the other California wines like from Ernest and Julio Gallo etc might have such sweet varieties.

[Squiggles]

Don't know how much plum wine costs, but it is definately sweet and pretty yummy.

[NorthYorker]

Ice wine is pretty expensive and its not something you could repeatedly buy. Is there anything that tastes similar to it without costing nearly that much? Or what about sweet wine in general... I know LCBO has those labels 0,1,2,3 for the degree of sweetness but I still have not found something that compares.

Any suggestions?

If you like sweet wines, you may want to check Auslese and Spatlese - marked wines. It's German for "late harvest" and it will give you moderately sweet and pretty flavourful white. Prices are from moderate to insane. Another inexpensive (and surprisingly good) offering is Muscat King David (about $8 per bottle), usually found in Kosher section. There are other Kosher sweet wines, but they're usually too sweet, to the point of sirupy. Among reds beside obvious suspects like ports good choices are so-called crackling wines from Italy (a bit fizzy, but not true bubbly stuff). Light, sweetish and easy-drinking.

[Keelie]

i will have to go with the late harvest.. they are along the same lines as ice wine but cost 1/2 the price. you can get a nice bottle for $25 rather than $50

with ice wine, the grapes are left to reach a certain temperature, the late harvest nearly reach that temp, but are picked just incase the right temp is not reached and ice wine is not possible. there are only few grapes left on the vines to reach the right temps for ice wine, if the temps are not right, the grapes go to waste.

for a normal person, its hard to tell the difference between ice wine and late harvest.

something else i enjoy is port. its very sweet like an ice wine, and comes in a variety of prices. i just had some that was really nice at $18 a bottle.

[Dr Butcher]

I prefer a sweeter white wine when the mood strikes me. I like wines made from the Gewürztraminer grape, I believe they are a later harvest grape. There are a couple of bottles I usually go for. One is from Pelee Island (label shown below), the other is a German Gewürztraminer that I can't for the life of me recall the name of (I usually grab it by label recognition). Check out the LCBO or wherever you buy your wine for a 2 or a 3 Gewürztraminer.



I stay away from fortified wines like Port, they just don't do it for me.

EDIT

If you want something sweet and cheap, I never drank it. My mom used to love this stuff, Schloss Laderheim Riesling. I believe it's from BC, and it comes in some massive bottles.....

[NorthYorker]

If you want something sweet and cheap, I never drank it. My mom used to love this stuff, Schloss Laderheim Riesling.

I tried it in vain hope to find cheap alternative to Moselwein here (I don't feel comfortable paying $12-15 for the bottle I can get for 3-4EUR in Germany). Well, in this case you get what you paid for. It's not complete pss, but not real thing either.

[mlc2000]

If you can still find it, KITTLING RIDGE ICE WINE & BRANDY for $20 is a nice drink. Its discontinued but theres still a few bottles floating around.

A unique blend of 7 year old, barrel aged brandy and Vidal Ice Wine.

Check LCBO.com for locations.

[DJSINR]

Wines:

As discussed in the previous posts,

Wildvines - cheap @ $7-8 for 750 ml and $12 for a 1.5L
Sweet, various flavours, personal favorites are Strawberry, apple and tangerine peach

Pelee - guwerstraminer - probably spelt it wrong but this has a nice taste to it, also try their Monarch.

Muskoka Lakes - They make an awesome wine that I think is now disontinued but still around, BLUEBERRY/CRANBERRY wine, very tasty and full of flavour.

Ports - Tawny, Fonseca, Graham roughly @ $16-17 Average, can go way up

Matteus - Sweet blush wine.

California - dont remember the name but it was a rose in a bug jug like bottle.

Zinfandel - Any brand, Ernest and Julio Gallo make a good one

Boones - more of a Wine beverage, almost cooler like.

Sparkling - Baby Duck, La Scala, Spumonti Bambino

Cheers

[Ayla500]

Wines:

As discussed in the previous posts,

Wildvines - cheap @ $7-8 for 750 ml and $12 for a 1.5L
Sweet, various flavours, personal favorites are Strawberry, apple and tangerine peach

Pelee - guwerstraminer - probably spelt it wrong but this has a nice taste to it, also try their Monarch.

Muskoka Lakes - They make an awesome wine that I think is now disontinued but still around, BLUEBERRY/CRANBERRY wine, very tasty and full of flavour.

Ports - Tawny, Fonseca, Graham roughly @ $16-17 Average, can go way up

Matteus - Sweet blush wine.

California - dont remember the name but it was a rose in a bug jug like bottle.

Zinfandel - Any brand, Ernest and Julio Gallo make a good one

Boones - more of a Wine beverage, almost cooler like.

Sparkling - Baby Duck, La Scala, Spumonti Bambino

Cheers

Have to agree here. I really enjoy a glass of wine and am not about to shell out alot of money. The wild vines stuff (Strawberry) is quite sweet and tastes good. My personal favorite is Berringers White Zinfandel. I love Zinfandel and of all the ones I have tried (which is alot) Berringers is the best. Fetzer is also quite good.
Yes, some would say "cheap"wines are not good, but Im not a wine "snob". I just know what I personally like. Berringers is about 11$ a bottle