Brännland Apple Ice 2023 is the lightest vintage we’ve produced so far in spite of the technical components coming in very similar to previous years. Around 100 grams of residual sugar balanced by 11 grams of acidity and slightly lower ABV than previous vintages. As usual Mutsu is the dominant fruit but this year we’ve also included a small volume of Golden Delicious, an apple similar to Mutsu and one of Mutsu’s parents.  Fermentations in spring were carried out entirely using wild yeast and finished unusually fast in spite of the low fermentation temperatures we work under. The fast ferment have created an even wilder wine, clean and light without losing assertion or body. We’ve also, as a result of expanded production, been able to choose from a broader and therefore better, material when blending. It is with great pleasure and pride that we present Brännland Apple Ice 2023 just in time for the time of year when you need a light, slightly chilled wine on a terrace.  

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Using the natural winter cold of Northern Sweden we concentrate apple juice from 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.

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Comments on the product

Andreas Sundgren, founder, Brännland Iscider,

This year’s ice cider is light and elegant, something that characterizes all the wines in the vintage regardless of label. The fermentations, that were carried through entirely using wild yeast, were strong and fast which to some extent changes the finished wine adding width, especially on the palate.  

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This year’s barrel aged ice cider has a lighter barrel signature than in the past, in keeping with the switch to using only large oak barrels.  

The result is a more drinkable ice cider without compromising what differentiates it from our other wines.  

The barrel aged ice cider is still the best wine from Brännland Iscider for meditation and contemplation but, for this vintage, combines the magic of Stockinger barrels with a more elegant touch. The finished wine straddles a wider range than usual.  

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Comments on Brännland Iscider Barrique 2018 by cider maker Andreas Sundgren:

Every year Brännland Iscider sets apart some of its ice cider for barrel ageing. 12 months on a barrel softens and integrates the high acidity and fresh apples notes with the natural residual sugar to create a deeper, more complex ice cider, darker both in colour as well as on the palate.

“The 2018 is curious in that an usually large part of it was shaped more by its ageing than we are otherwise used to. When we barrelled it in 2019 it was fairly low in alcohol and had a higher degree of residual sugar. Then in the spring of 2020 a fair amount of it started fermenting slowly again and we decided to roll with it rather than try and stop anything. What came out the other end was higher in alcohol than expected but also with a closer balance between acidity and residual sugar than we had first envisioned. It seems the ice cider “wanted” to move to that point on its own and we are happy it did. In the bottle this spells a tighter final wine. It will be interesting to see how it handles further ageing in bottle”.

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