On Saturday, Casa Larga Vineyard, a fantastic finger lakes region ice wine and regular wine winery and vineyard in upstate New York and host of the NY State Ice Wine & Culinary Festival that I won tickets to attend a few weeks ago, hosted a special public tasting of the two winning ice wine cocktail contest creations. My friend Meg and I crafted and entered the Pear Weather Friend cocktail and a former RIT student and his girlfriend entered the Ice Berries cocktail. The contest was surprisingly very dramatic and an extremely close call for all four days of voting. Due to a technical difficulty that prevented online voting from closing on time, the festival settled on “too close to call” and awarded us both winners. The final score was Meg and my Pear Weather Friend with 216 votes, and Ice Berries with 212 votes.
The winery made and dressed up our cocktails for a special photo shoot (bottom left), and spread the word via facebook, newspaper, and e-blast about Saturday’s tasting. All visitors to the winery were offered a shot-sized sample of each cocktail to try, a full glass for $5, and a recipe card featuring the two winning cocktails for folks to take home and recreate on their own. We chose to make our Pear Weather Friend cocktail (recipe below!) with Casa Larga’s Fiori Vidal Ice Wine (bottom right) which has won over 40 awards including “World’s Best Ice Wine” in 2008. You should order some. It’s amazing.
Pear Weather Friend
- 1 part Casa Larga Fiori Vidal Ice Wine
- 1 part fresh pear puree infused with freshly grated ginger root (Wash, peel, and cube ripe pears. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil on the stove. Place pears and a small sprinkling of freshly grated ginger root in a steamer basket in the pot. Cover, reduce heat to simmer, and steam until tender. Blend pears, ginger, and a bit of the juice at the bottom of the pot in a food processor or blender until well-pureed and not too thick. Chill.)
- 1 part ginger ale
- Splash of Disaronno
- Garnish with a thin slice of pear sprinkled with ground cinnamon
- Serve chilled and enjoy!
Thanks for all the support, well wishes, and votes friends! Hope you’ll be able to pick up a bottle of ice wine and try out the recipe :)
