Ice wine - A wine from frozen grapes

1829 became the first ice grapes vintage and 1830 processes to an ice wine from the municipality of Bingen-Dromersheim. The winegrowers harvested 1829 off by the bad wine year not all grapes, so that were exposed a multiplicity of grapes to the strong frost. At long last, the winegrowers still picked the last grapes to feed the cattle with that.

On the way there it tried this some the grapes and stated that the grapes were very small and arid, but in the taste very sweetly with high grapes must. The ice wine known today very much then arose from these grapes squeezed out in the following.

By the climatic prerequisites only Germany and Austria could guarantee for the production of the ice wine for a long time.

In 1975 Canada started with the ice wine production and the world's biggest producer of ice wine is today (in the area of quantity!). The special ice wines are produced out of Vidal Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Riesling.

Production of the ice wines

The grapes become harvest to the thinning of the vine. The most important with the ice wine harvest is that the grapes in the frozen condition are harvest and processed. This happens often in the middle of the night since the temperatures then fall under the demanded degree number. The helpers are then contacted immediately and the harvest must start speedily. The proportionate sugar content with ice wines is the most important quality criterion. Only under a corresponding pressure the grapes can be pressed. The quantity yield is very small with ice wine, since the percentage of water in the grapes in frozen the EN condition decreases clearly.

With physical methods the frozen water is separated from the fruit juice must portfolio (sugar content) now to then be in the position to be reprocessed to ice wine. If the sugar content is much high and the temperatures very low, the risk often exists that the alcoholic fermentation does not come correctly into the course. The whole work therefore would be for free and no ice wine would be in the position to be produced. Therefore everybody is inevitably early control of the fruit juice must. An expensive wine production is the production of the ice wine!

The high prices for the ice wine have explained oneself good hereby. By the heavy water loss the gain is very little for the ice wine production. The high share of the work done by hand in the production process as well as the production methods still arrive in the cellar. The different price of a discounter wine and those of a renowned wine dealer arising from the different quality of the offered ice wines. The ice wines of a discounter low prices are harvested too much with machine vintage, the whole processing are thus more favorably however qualitatively usually inferior. If one attaches importance to a natural and rich flavour, one should in principle abandon these ice wines and select the ice wines from known enterprises only of quality producers.

The high prices for the ice wine have explained oneself good hereby. By the heavy water loss the gain is very little for the ice wine production. The high share of the work done by hand in the production process as well as the production methods still arrive in the cellar. The different price of a discounter wine and those of a renowned wine dealer arising from the different quality of the offered ice wines. The ice wines of a discounter low prices are harvested too much with machine vintage, the whole processing are thus more favorably however qualitatively usually inferior. If one attaches importance to a natural and rich flavour, one should in principle abandon these ice wines and select the ice wines from known enterprises only of quality producers.