Eat Wine, Be Happy: New Company Offers Wine Sorbet

Shoppers who headed to Tanger last Saturday for the Food Truck Derby event were able to stop by the Empire State Cellars tasting room -- and sample Frosae Wine Sorbae, the original frozen dessert created with wine.  

Frosae has locked in the alcohol and taste of wine into three varieties: a Royal Red, an Elegant White and a Chocolate Merlot.  Each has less than a five percent alcohol content and are meant for those over 21.  

All varieties are currently on sale at the Empire State Wine Cellars in individual servings.  

North Fork wines were used to create the sorbet: Peconic Bay wines were used to create a customized blend of Frosae; Raphael Vineyard is also onboard, not only selling Frosae Wine Sorbae -- their reds, whites and chocolate merlots are produced using their proprietary blend of fine wines.

"Eat wine -- be happy," is the new slogan put forth by Frosae Wine Sorbae, LLC, the company manufacturing the frozen dessert.

Under new regulations issued by the New York State Liquor Authority, Frosae is classified a frozen dessert, not an alcoholic product; no liquor license is required for its sale.

The product was named "sorbae," according to Ben Amato, president of Frosae Wine Sorbae, because "Sorbet is for kids.  Sorbae is truly for adults."

The product, he said, is trademarked and registered with the FDA and the Department of Agriculture and Markets, and copyrighted by the federal government.

With corporate headquarters in East Patchogue, manufacturing facilities in Mastic, and products on sale at Raphael Vineyard in Peconic, The Empire State Cellars tasting room at Tanger, and Hotel Indigo in Riverhead, the plan is to team up with many additional North Fork wineries.

"Each different winery we serve will have a customized Frosae wine sorbae, for we will be using their wines with our formula to produce a unique frozen dessert, perfectly paired to their wines," Amato said.