An article appeared today in the Democrat & Chronicle about Wine Ice Cream!
I've enclosed it below. How brilliant is this?! Combining two of the worlds best creations!
New Dessert Comes With Bouquet As A Bonus
by Deborah Alexander
A new frozen dessert has arrived in the Rochester Area. At the moment, it's only available in the wine shop of Casa Larga Vineyards in Perinton, and you must be 21 or older to indulge. Mercer's Wine Ice Cream comes in four flavours: Ala Port, Peach White Zinfandel, Red Raspberry Chardonnay & Royal White Riesling.
Created by Mercer's Dairy in Boonville, Oneida County New York, the frozen concoction is not ice cream flavoured with wine, but rather, 12 percent cream product with 5 percent alcohol volume, according to Roxaina Hulburt, director of marketing and and one of the eight owners of the dairy.
Hulburt said New York state wines are used to make the ice cream which she has described as being an "adult dessert, a complete dessert that needs no garnishing." Casa Larga received several samples of the wine ice cream in mid-August and taste-tested it with wine staff and customers, according to winery brand manager Stacy Kurtz.
"It was very well received," Kurtz said. A month later a freezer was installed and the wine ship began selling pints for $7.
The idea for the wine ice cream is the result of experimenting with Mercer's vanilla ice cream and NEw York state fruit wines at wine and food industry shows. Hulburt said it took about 18 months to develop the forumla for the product. The company switched from using fruit wines in the formula to Riesling and Merlots because of the better name recognition. "To our knowledge, nobody else is doing this" she said.
In every state where Mercer's Dairy has gone through the licensing process, state officials have informed the company they have never heard of such a product. The company has applied for, and/or received, licensing to sell the wine ice cream in 20 states and in the District of Columbia.
Hulburt said the plan to sell the ice cream, which is also available in five-quart and three-gallon containers for $25 and $52 respectively, in high end restaurants. Outside the Rochester area, wine ice cream is sold at Hannaford Supermarket, a high-end grocery in Utica and Watertown, and at The Sagamore in the Lake George area.