"How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is
a simple, frugal heart." Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), Greek author, in the novel Zorba the Greek

Have you ever had Ice wine?

Most people have not.  I remember purchasing only a single bottle, at a winery not far from Niagara Falls in Canada, almost twenty years ago.  For reasons that will become obvious as you read on, you will only find Ice wine from wineries in cold climates.

Ice wine is made by leaving the grapes on the vine until temperatures fall below freezing.  The grapes then freeze on the vine naturally before being harvested, typically at temperatures from -10 to -13 degrees centigrade (14 to 10 degrees farhenheit).  This harvesting will be done by hand.

The grape varieties most commonly used in this process are Vidal Blanc, Riesling, and Seyval Blanc.  Those are all white wine varietals, but the red wine grape Caberbnet Franc is also used, yielding a rosé-like color.

While those grapes are left on the vine in the cold, they are exposed to the natural freezing and thawing process of winter weather.  This dehydrates the grapes.  It also concentrates the sugars, acids, and other extracts present in the grapes.

In the crushing process, the frozen natural crystals of water in the juice tend to adhere to the skins.  The resulting runoff of juice is less than would occur with unfrozen grapes, but is also highly concentrated as a result.  Typically, this is about 20% of the juice you would get from the same grapes, unfrozen.  The result is then fermented into wine.

The end exilir is a very concentrated and flavorful wine with a high residual sugar level.  The hallmark of a good Ice wine is the balance between the sweetness of that high sugar level and the acidity concentrated by the time exposed to the winter.  Tasters speak of tropical fruit flavors in the mouth, like mango and peach -- followed by a crisp finish when the wine is swallowed.

Not surprisingly, Ice wine is expensive.  The yield of a vineyard, as noted above, is only about 20% of what you would expect from the same grapes harvested at a more normal time.  Ice wine is commonly sold in half-bottles (375 ml.)  The grapes are easy to damage in their frozen condition and require careful handling during harvest.  Leaving the grapes on the vines also exposes them longer to damage from weather, birds and animals.  Only a high selling price would lead a winegrower to take such risks.

Due to the sweetness and concentrated flavors, Ice wine is traditionally considered a dessert wine, consumed in small quantities, which makes the 375 ml. bottle more reasonable, and keeps the total cost within reason.

So how did this Ice wine come about, you say?  Through dire necessity, of course; the first recorded making of ice wine was in Franconia in Germany, when an early winter caught the grapes still on the vines in 1794.  It wasn't until sometime in the mid-1800s that a winery in the Rheingau region of Germany made Ice wine on purpose.  (Ice wine is called Eiswein in German.)

Naturally enough, Canada has turned their harsh winters into an advantage here.  Starting in 1973 with the first commercial bottling, Canada is today by far the world's largest producer of Ice wine.  The Niagara region of Ontario is the biggest producer.