Using the natural winter cold of Northern Sweden we concentrate apple juice on the best Swedish apples and ferment the sweet must into an ice wine, an ice cider, with equal parts fresh apple acidity and warm autumnal apple sweetness.
Brännland Iscider 2022
It is fitting that our 10th vintage is also the first for which we have relied entirely on the wild yeasts present in our juice to ferment the wine.
The transition to natural yeasts started in earnest in 2020. We’ve always had a mix of inoculated and wild ferments but because sweet wines in many respects are more difficult to ferment than other wines it has taken us time to accumulate experience and confidence enough to switch entirely.
A transition like this is a result of methodology and style evolving together, converging. It is a fluid decision made up of many tiny ones over time. A decade of accumulating knowledge experience and trust in the innate ability of the wines.
The result is a vintage that is extremely consistent in its expression. Our native yeasts seem to stop at roughly the same alcohol level regardless of starting sugar. They also seem fairly neutral in relation to the expression the yeast contributes to the finished wine.
This gives the fruit more chance to shine.
The fact that native yeasts have to work harder than inoculated varieties adds a wilder expression to the finished wine.
The apple varieties dominating the vintage are Mutsu, backed up by Cox Orange, Kim and Gloster with a light touch of vinous Belle de Boskoop.
Mutsu is the rich, intense backbone, Cox, Gloster and Kim adds red notes, light tannins and length. Boskoop lends seriousness to the vintage.
The 2022 has an unusual amount of residual sugar which is also fitting seeing as its historical counterweight, the 2012, carried upwards of 180 grams of sugar per liter.
As usual that residual sugar is matched by the acidity that has become the hallmark of our ice ciders. This is a sweet wine to put down. It will likely age very well.
– Andreas Sundgren, founder, Brännland Iscider
This wine, compared to previous vintages, is wilder and fresher on the nose. For me wild apple best describes the aromas.
I also perceive it as slightly more shy, even mystical, in the best sense of the word, without compromising intensity or complexity.
The wild ferments seem to work well for the sweeter wines from Brännland Iscider as well. They add a dimension that is hard to define but leaves you wanting more.
2022 altogether marks another change in the right direction. These wines have never been as interesting as they are now.
– Joel Welander, Flying Winemaker
- Appearance
- Crystal amber
- Nose
- Intense apple flanked by stone fruit.
- Palate
- Deep balanced apple sweetness without losing characteristic acidity or length. Stonefruit, salinity.
- ABV
- 9,5%
- Residual sugar
- 165 gr/litre
- Total acidity
- 15,5 gr/litre
- Bottled
- May 2023
- Vintage
27.000 bottles 375 ml – bottles/case 6
1500 ml bottles on request- Serving temperature
- 8-12 degrees centigrade
- Storage
- Long and patient
Pairing Cheese, desserts with apple and berries, foie gras. Meditation. Collecting. Fall and winter evenings. Commemorating a life new to the world, a life passed. Any decennial or centennial anniversary.
