Ice Wine (Eiswein)

Ice wine (Eiswein in Germany/Austria, Icewine in Canada) is produced by leaving grapes on the vine until temperatures drop to −8°C or below, which naturally freezes the water in the grape berries. When the frozen grapes are pressed, the ice (water) remains behind and only the concentrated, sweet, syrupy juice flows out.

The result is extremely concentrated in both sugar (often 180–320 g/L residual sugar) and acidity, producing wines of extraordinary intensity, complexity, and balance. Flavours include apricot, peach, tropical fruit, honey, and caramel with a streak of fresh acidity that prevents the sweetness from becoming cloying.

Eiswein is rare and expensive because: the grapes must be left on the vine until deep winter, risking loss to birds, disease, and unpredictable weather; harvest must happen when temperatures are exactly right (and usually at 3–6am); and volumes are tiny. In good conditions, Riesling and Vidal Blanc (Canada) produce the finest Eiswein.

Eiswein requires naturally frozen grapes — it cannot be made by artificially freezing grapes in a freezer (that product has a different name, cryoextraction, and is used to produce "poor man's" ice wine at lower cost but considered less prestigious).