Wine Ice Cream? Yes Please!

Quick! Name one thing that you love as much (or almost as much) as a great glass of Italian wine.

If you’re anything like us, the heat of summer may have turned your mind directly to that most delectable of treats – ice cream.

Let’s be honest. As much as we love Italian wine, there’s few things more satisfying than a cold, creamy scoop of ice cream when the sun’s really bearing down on you. That coolness, coupled with a healthy touch of sweetness, is just what you need to salve that summertime heat.

You may be wondering why we’re talking about ice cream. After all, for as great as ice cream is, it’s not exactly a food that you’re going to eat with a glass of wine by your side.

But that doesn’t mean that ice cream and wine don’t share a connection.

In fact, the work of a dairy company in New York has created a stronger link between wine and ice cream than you may have imagined.

Mercer’s Dairy

Mercer’s Dairy is a New York-based company that’s taken a step that few others would have even thought to have taken. They’ve combined some of their favourite wines with ice cream to create some unique flavours that combine your favourite drink with your favourite summertime treat.

The wines come in eight different flavours, including Riesling and sparkling strawberry wine. Most interestingly of all, these aren’t ice creams that have the flavour of wines. They also have a good chunk of the alcohol content. All told, these very much for adult treats have an alcohol content of about 5%.

Who’d have known that eating a bowl of ice cream could potentially get you tipsy?

In fact, the alcohol content is high enough that Mercer’s had to petition local governments to ensure that they could legally sell their new ice cream concoctions.

Thankfully, they received the approval that they needed, but they ran into some other problems along the way. Chief amongst these was figuring out how to get the ice cream to freeze. After all, the high alcohol content meant that a few adjustments had to be made. Again, the company overcame this challenge to produce an ice cream that freezes, maintains its consistency, and tastes exactly how you’d expect it to.

Why We Love the Idea of Wine Ice Cream

It’s tempting to just say “because it’s ice cream and wine!” for this section of the article.

But we’ll get a little more in-depth than that. There are plenty of reasons why we love the idea of wine and ice cream beyond the sheer novelty of combining wine and ice cream.

So Many Flavours

Mercer’s has already done a great job of introducing some variety into their range by creating eight ice cream flavours based on some of America’s favourite wines.

But think about the sheer number of possibilities that are open for them and anybody else who may want to create a wine-based ice cream.

We often talk about how the sheer variety of flavours on offer is one of our favourite things about the Italian wine industry. Every producer has their own little take on their wines, plus there are so many different grape varieties that the possibilities are almost endless.

Now imagine how that could translate to wine ice cream. Could the technique be refined to the point where we can actually taste a producer’s signature style in an ice cream? It may not be quite there yet, but it’s certainly possible in the future.

Perhaps we’ll start seeing producers creating their own ice creams.

It Solves the Ice Cream and Wine Conundrum

We mentioned at the top of the article that ice cream and wine isn’t really the most natural combination in the world. You don’t see many people asking for recommendations for wines that complement different regular flavours of ice cream. Simply out, the acidity of a white wine and the complexity of a red wine are both often enough to completely drown out the flavour in ice cream. Plus, the melt in your mouth nature of ice cream means that it’s unlikely to meld all that well with a sip of wine.

That’s why this ice cream and wine concoction is such a good idea. You no longer have to try and puzzle out a way to create a combination. It’s all done for you by people who have clearly spent many years trying to figure out how to do it.

It’s two of our favourite things combined into a single treat. How can you go wrong with that?

It’s Wine…With Calcium

We’ve spoken at length on a number of occasions about the health benefits of Italian wine. A good red wine contains so many antioxidants that many medical professionals actually recommend that you drink a glass per day to improve your heart and brain health. Wine may also provide some protection against come forms of cancer, as well as being able to protect your body against strokes.

But it’s not the perfect healer. One thing that wine lacks is a good shot of calcium.

Your body needs calcium to help it develop strong bones and maintain them. Typically, you’ll get most of your calcium from dairy products, such as milk.

You see where we’re going with this, don’t you.

Wine ice cream not only offers some of the benefits of the wines that were used to make them. They also include a healthy serving of calcium in the bargain.

The Final Word

This list of benefits may be a little tongue in cheek, but the sentiment behind them is true. We’re very intrigued by the possibilities that this wine ice cream idea brings to the table.

We may never see the idea develop beyond what Mercer’s Dairy has already brought to the table. But they’ve proven that the concept definitely works. Now, we may see other companies pick up the ball and try to do the same thing with other varieties of wines. We wait with baited breath to see what happens next.