Liliac & Kracher Eiswein 2023, Transylvania, Romania, 375ml

This ice wine is a collaboration between Liliac, the boutique Transylvanian winery, and Weingut Kracher, Austria’s most celebrated sweet-wine house. It blends Muscat Ottonel, Traminer and Romania’s native Fetească Albă, left on the vine until the first hard winter frosts. The frozen grapes are picked by hand and pressed while still frozen, so only a tiny amount of intensely sweet, concentrated juice is released, and the wine then rests on its lees in stainless steel for about nine months.

In the glass it is a light, brilliant gold. The nose is exotic and expressive, with lychee, candied fruit, acacia honey and a touch of citrus. The palate is rich and luscious, with apricot jam, ripe pear and tropical fruit, all lifted by fresh, lively acidity that keeps it beautifully balanced, before a long, lingering finish.

Serve well chilled, at around 6–8°C, in small glasses. It is a superb match for fruit desserts, crème brûlée, foie gras and blue cheeses, or can be enjoyed on its own as a dessert in itself. Enjoy it now or keep it for several years. Once opened, it will keep in the fridge for a week or more.

Liliac is a boutique winery in Transylvania, Romania’s coolest wine region, founded by Austrian businessman Alfred Beck. After a small trial vinification in 2010, a brand-new winery was built in 2011 at Batoș, with further vineyards around 40 km away in the Lechința DOC, giving around 52 hectares in total. ‘Liliac’ is the Romanian word for ‘bat’, a nod to the legends of the region, and the winery has become known for clean, modern, fruit-driven wines from native grapes such as Fetească Albă and Fetească Regală. Its ice wine is made in partnership with Weingut Kracher, the celebrated sweet-wine house in Austria’s Burgenland founded by the late Alois Kracher and now run by his son Gerhard. With Austrian winters now often too mild for ice wine, the friends make it in Transylvania, where cold winters still freeze the grapes naturally on the vine.