Casa Larga holds festival to showcase its ice wine

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Casa Larga vineyards held its 15th annual Ice Wine Festival on Saturday. Ice wine is produced from grapes that froze on the vine.

Because the process is weather-dependent, very few wineries ever even try to make ice wine. That’s easier to accomplish in our area though usually.

“The weather this year was not conducive to making ice wine,” said Andrea Colaruoto O’Neill of Casa Larga. “The very first time we went to make ice wine, it was the same weather. It didn’t freeze. So this was kind of interesting that we had a year much like the first year. But that didn’t stop us then, so it’s not going to stop us now.”

The festival featured a meal of ice wine infused foods with wagon rides in the vineyard, tours of the winery, and of course, wine tastings.