By Rafe Calder
Six hours, in the dark, in the cold. That is the minimum a winery needs to harvest and press a batch of icewine grapes, according to Modern Farmer, and it is usually an overnight job. The conditions are not an accident. They are the law.
The rule that makes it icewine
VQA Ontario, the province’s wine authority, requires icewine grapes to be picked at or below minus 8 degrees Celsius. The winery says harvest in Niagara typically happens around early to mid January. Modern Farmer gives the usual window as December to February, and says the best harvest conditions are between minus 10 and minus 12.
VQA Ontario also sets a sugar minimum for icewine, 35 degrees Brix. The temperature rule and the sugar rule work together: the cold concentrates the juice, and the minimum checks that it did.
Where it started
Destination Ontario describes icewine as a happy accident, an unexpectedly early frost that crept into German vineyards in the late 1700s. It says Ontario producers such as Inniskillin began making it in the early 1980s, and that within 10 years the wine was winning world recognition.
Why it is expensive, in numbers
A berry is roughly 80 per cent water, says Henry of Pelham. When frozen berries are pressed, the water stays behind in the skins as shards of ice and only a small amount of juice flows out. The winery says the juice pressed from icewine grapes is about one fifth of what you would get from unfrozen grapes.
Modern Farmer describes the pressing as done in small hydraulic presses, under higher pressure than normal, with a target juice range of 35 to 39 degrees Brix. Destination Ontario says icewine requires more fruit vines than any other wine, and Wikipedia says it is typically sold in half bottles of 375 millilitres or smaller.
It also takes preparation. Modern Farmer says vines are netted in autumn to keep birds off them, and that growers register in November with VQA inspectors, who record grape variety, acreage and estimated tonnage. Then the producers wait for the cold.
How big it is
Destination Ontario lists the Niagara Peninsula as the primary icewine region and the Lake Erie North Shore, south of Windsor, as another.
What a harvest looks like
None of that is quick. It is a few cold hours with months of preparation behind them: the netting in autumn, the November registration, the wait for the thermometer.
Going to see it
Destination Ontario lists a Niagara Icewine Festival, usually held over weekends in January. Check its calendar for the current dates. If you can’t visit in January, you can still visit a winery in another season and ask how they handle the winter harvest.
What to ask on the label
Ask where the grapes were grown and what the variety was. Ask whether the wine is made under the VQA rules, since the 35 Brix minimum and the minus 8 harvest rule apply there. Ask when it was picked, and whether the winery will tell you the temperature on the night.
We have not yet profiled makers here and will not name any we cannot source.
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