Sticking with last week’s wine definition theme of dessert wine,
this week we’re defining: Ice wine.
Ice wine is a dessert wine that is made from grapes that were
frozen while still on the vine. The freeze sucks the moisture from
the fruit, but leaves the sugars and other dissolved solids.
When these grapes are pressed, they release significantly less
juice than a grape harvested before the freeze. As a result, the
small amount of juice produced has a concentrated, sweet flavor —
even sweeter than some dessert wines.
A good ice wine should offer a balance between this high level
of sweetness and acidity, which means the wine won’t appear overly
sweet when you drink it.
Last week we defined botrytis and its noble rot,
which is used to produce dessert wines. Unlike these wines, ice
wine is not affected by noble rot because healthy grapes are needed
to stand up to the freeze.
Ice wines freeze on the vine before they’re harvested and
fermented. In most cases grapes slated for ice wine will stay on
the vine well after the rest of the vineyard is striped bare,
waiting for the big freeze. In some cases it might not come until
after the start of the New Year.
Because the moisture is sucked from the grapes, it takes a lot
more of the fruit to produce the wine and even so the quantities
produced are significantly less than other varietals. It’s also a
risky process that requires hands on labor and a lot of faith in
Mother Nature to produce the perfect freeze. As a result, ice wines
are usually quite expensive.
Our neighbors up in Canada are one of the largest producers of
ice wine, along with Germany.
Share on Facebook
