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All About Ice Wine!
Siobhan Rollo
Ice Wine aka Icewine, “Canada’s Liquid Gold”, “Canada’s gift to the world”, Eiswein, Ice wine.
Ice wine is a dessert wine made from frozen grapes, and world renowned as a Canadian-made treasure. With an overwhelming majority of the world’s ice wine coming from Canada, one could imagine it’d be a more common treat than it is. However, most Canadians come to us asking: “So, what is ice wine?”
This dessert wine has a terribly difficult and risky process, which makes it so elusive. The wine is produced from grapes still on the vine, frozen solid! This means that in order for produce, there has to be the perfect frosty weather, the right amount of manpower to harvest an entire crop at a moment’s notice, and a bit of luck for the right conditions.
The weather conditions to make ice wine require the grapes to be frozen at -8 degrees Celsius or below.
The grapes being frozen is essential to the process. When grapes freeze, the sugars and other solids in the grape don’t freeze, but the water does. This results in a much higher concentration of grape juice, but a slightly lower alcohol content than table wine.
While Canada is the world’s biggest ice wine producer, it is made in other parts of the world in much smaller quantities. Ontario is the province that makes the most by volume, with the Niagara Peninsula producing over 90% of Canada’s ice wine. Canada’s other big producers are Quebec, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.
The world’s second biggest ice wine producer is China, followed by Germany in third. However, there are many other countries in Europe that make ice wine as well including Austria, Croatia, and Denmark. Despite this, Canada’s ice wine has regularly been imported into the EU since 2001.
The Hokkaido region of Japan has one winery that produces red ice wine. The Furano winery has an annual harvest, and serves their limited reserve right from the winery’s front door.
Ice wine comes in both white and red varieties. There are many types of grapes used include Riesling, Vidal Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, merlot, Sangiovese, and more. Colours of ice wine range from light gold to burgundy.
Ice wine as a Canadian treat is actually thanks to a German immigrant. The first person to make ice wine in Canada was Walter Hainle in 1972. Hainle made his ice wine in Okanagan Valley, and would sell his first batch in 1978.
Ice wine has since become a Canadian specialty that many people around the globe enjoy!
Looking to try ice wine? Here’s some recommendations to get you started!:
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