Sunday, January 27, 2008
Food, Wine, Beer & Spirits

Icewine: sipping the cool of cool-climate viticulture

At Inniskillin Wines, the elegant Ontario estate just upstream from Niagara Falls, however, things are a bit different...

By Jason Tesauro and Phineas Mollod

Harvest time for most vineyards involves fall festivals, hayrides, cool, comfortable nights and maximizing the waning sunshine of October to obtain optimal ripeness before picking the grapes. At Inniskillin Wines, the elegant Ontario estate just upstream from Niagara Falls, however, things are a bit different. Inniskillin makes icewine, a sweet, brightly acidic dessert-style wine traditionally made in the wilds of Austria and Germany. It is pressed from frozen grapes, which yield only 5 to 10 percent of the normal volume of juice, creating a succulent, rich wine reminiscent of its Great White North roots. When the grape’s water forms ice crystals, the remaining core juice is a concentration of sugars and other acid solutes, a mixture that produces the intense icewine aroma and flavor.

If you thought last week’s NFL playoff in Green Bay was nippy, under the official VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance) standards, icewine harvest must wait until the grapes freeze and temperatures hover near a gelid -10 C (14 F, 263.15 kelvin). Often, harvest must take place at night, the grapes pressed in extreme cold, sometimes right in the vineyard to ensure the ice doesn’t defrost and dilute the juicy intensity. This intense labor of frigid love explains the intense flavors and typically higher prices for these romantic wines. To get to the sweet kernel of Inniskillin’s famed icewine, we caught up with Deborah Pratt, winery public relations manager.

Some producers stick grapes on refrigerated trucks to mimic the natural freezing process. Given the rarity and cost of icewine, should consumers embrace these wines as bargains, or consider them cheap frauds?
They should not be called icewine if they have not been made in the traditional way. Consumers should check for Appellation of Origin Systems—VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance)

Global warming ... major foe on the horizon?
We’ve endured extreme changes in the weather since 1984. With earliest picking being Dec. 2 and latest March 5, we simply need to maximize any time periods where temperatures are ideal. Some years the window is shorter than others.

Viticulturally speaking, what happens to the grapes between the end of the standard growing season and the winter icewine harvest?
Once the leaves drop, there are no new sugars produced, the grape just slowly dehydrates. Example for right now is that the bunches still are in great shape, have not broken down and the degree of dehydration is low. Continued rain and warm temperatures speed up deterioration.

In champagne, highly acidic grapes that make fine bubbly would be considered unsatisfactory for producing still wines. Is it the same at Inniskillin?
The highly acidic grapes for champagne are usually picked before the normal harvest time. Any of the grapes used for icewine can be used for table wine or Late Harvest wines. There would still be properly balanced sugar and acid as they reached their normal optimum harvest conditions.

If Mother Nature doesn't cooperate, do vineyards slated for icewine end up rotting on the vine or can they be used to produce other wines?
It’s an individual call regarding cutting ones losses. If picked before the optimum temperature of minus eight, they would be used for Select and Special Select Late Harvest designations. The use of projected long range forecasts assists winemakers in deciding whether to take the risk and wait. SP

Phineas and Jason are the authors of “The Modern Gentleman” and “The Modern Lover.” E-mail them at booze@sundaypaper.com.
 
Icewine: Extreme Winemaking by Drs. Donald Ziraldo and Carl Kaiser (Key Porter Books, 2007). Within its covers reminiscent of The Beatles’ white album, the authors/founders of Inniskillin Wines tell the fascinating backstory of snowy viticulture and discuss the austere science of ice crystals while providing coffee-table-book-esque photographs and sumptuous recipes like: Ricotta Crepes with Drunken Strawberries and Vanilla-Infused Icewine Frenched Toast.