26th October 2021 | Cork Talk | 4 minute read
Believe it or not, a frozen vineyard filled with ice-cold grapes is actually the dream for some winemakers. Ice wine, in many ways, is the ultimate winter wine – from how it’s made to when people tend to drink it. As we approach the colder months and head into the festive season, we thought we’d take a closer look at this famous dessert wine, including how, when and where it’s made, tasting notes to expect and food to pair it with this winter.
Ice wine, or ‘Eiswein’ as it’s known in Germany, is a style of dessert wine that is made using grapes that have frozen on the vine (the clue is in the title). A key difference here vs regular winemaking is that instead of being harvested early autumn, the fruit is left for much longer and picked at the height of winter, usually at the dead of night!
The idea behind using frozen fruit is that it’s a clever way of ensuring the grapes have a naturally high sugar level when they are picked and turned into wine – and it’s this high concentration of fruit sugar that is essential in premium sweet wine production.
The reason a high concentration of fruit sugar is so important is because of what happens during the fermentation process. In regular dry wine production, the chemical reaction of transforming grape juice into wine is complete once all the yeasts die, and this typically happens when the alcohol level in the blend hits 15% ABV. At this point there is little to no sugar left, resulting in a dry wine.
So, in order to produce a wine that still has some sweetness left in it once the yeast has all disappeared, the winemaker needs grapes that are higher in glucose than usual. There are a number of ways of achieving this, and freezing the fruit is one of them.
How exactly do frozen grapes result in higher sugar levels?
If the ice-cold grapes are harvested and crushed immediately before they have had a chance to thaw, instead of getting a mushy grape juice you’ll get chunks of fruit and ice crystals. If the ice crystals can be removed quickly, the winemaker will be left with pieces of cold grape that contain hardly any water, meaning the sugar percentage will be extremely high.
Below is a handy overview of how ice wine is made, although a far more detailed look at this winemaking process can be found in the How is Sweet Wine Made section of our Wine Guide.
As this is all about working with nature (chucking normal grapes into a freezer is considered cheating!), ice wine can only be made in cooler climate regions where frosts occur in the vineyard in the winter. It originated in Germany and Austria, and has since gone on to become one of Canada’s best-loved winemaking methods.
From picking to pressing, it’s a race against time before the ice starts to melt. This is why picking the grapes in the middle of the night actually makes a lot of sense, because the bitterly cold temperature buys the workers more time to get the frozen fruit from the vine to the fermentation tank. With all of this in mind, you can begin to understand why Ice Wine can only be produced in certain parts of the world, and is considered a highly specialist and premium style of wine.
Canadian ice wine can often be made from Cabernet Franc or Merlot, and is bursting with beautiful red berry aromas. Expect notes of rhubarb, redcurrant, strawberry and spice, with a luscious mouthfeel that rounds it all off very nicely.
When it comes to German ‘Eiswein’, the undisputed king of the frozen vineyard is Riesling, offering pronounced flavours of honey, dried apricot, peach and citrus. Being a grape variety with naturally high acidity, it produces a truly magical dessert wine that strikes just the right balance between sweetness and acidity.
Whether you’re going for a red grape or white grape blend, a New World or Old World blend, ice wine will always be rich, full-bodied and at the top end of the sweetness scale. For this reason it can be hard to pair with food, but our top tip would be to avoid overly sweet desserts and opt for lighter, fruitier puddings such as cheesecake, banoffee pie or pineapple cake. As for cheeseboards, Ice Wine is at its best with a wedge of Brie or a stinky Stilton.
