(MCT)—Summer may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t grab one last bit of gusto. One final way to chill. I have a couple of ideas.
Winesicles? Why not?
Kim Crawford, the legendary New Zealand winemaker, has teamed up with a New York-based company called People’s Pops to create an adult treat that evokes the pleasures of childhood.
It’s winesicles. Ice pops on sticks made of wine and various fruit flavors. Go to Amazon.com and you can find a book about People’s Pops for $11.55 and a plastic kit for making them for $14.95. Google “Kim Crawford People’s Pops” and you’ll find the recipe.
Crawford’s tastiest recipe, I think, is for “Sauvignon Blanc Infused Yellow Peach and Vanilla Ice Pops.” It starts with seven ounces of his wine, adds four peaches, some brown sugar and a piece of vanilla bean. You puree it and pour it in the plastic pop forms. They even provide the sticks.
Crawford also has a recipe for frozen pops from his pinot noir, adding brown sugar and blackberries.
And the wines are good:
- 2011 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand: crisp and lively, with saliva-inducing flavors wine tasters call “gooseberries.”
- 2010 Kim Crawford Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand: also crisp and lively, with black cherry flavors and smooth tannins.
With the wine at 13.5 percent alcohol plus the peaches and so on you end up with pops that are about 5 percent alcohol – about the level of many beers, and weak enough to freeze in four to six hours.
This would make a great palate cleanser for a multi-course meal.
Stainless Steel Ice Cubs? Why not?
Don’t you hate it when the ice in your scotch-on-the-rocks melts, diluting its power and turning it beige and wimpy?
And of course you’d never put ice cubes in your wine (would you?), which would dilute it as well, destroying its delicate balance.
A new solution is out called tilt, by a company called soireehome. It’s a “food-grade” stainless steel ball with a hook on top that makes it look like a miniature Christmas tree ornament. You chill it in the freezer, then use the hook that comes with it – disguised as a cocktail stirrer _ to place it gently into your drink. Dilution problem solved.
The spheres are 1 by 1 ~ inch in size. They’re center-weighted, so they always stay right-side-up. And they come with a silicone base to sit them in, so you can leave them on the bar in your person cave as a conversation piece.
A set of two is about $35. Find them at soireehome.com.
Fred Tasker has retired from The Miami Herald but is still writing about wine. He can be reach at fredtaskerwine@gmail.com.
Distributed by MCT Information Services.
