Posted on 05/01/2021
Discover a mythical wine
With the festive season upon us and a storm with the name of a song, snow and frost arrived. While the kids played outside, the cat and I watched from the warmth of the window. It was at that precise moment that I thought I should tell you all about ice wine - I don't know what the cat was thinking - and how it comes about and how it's made!
The history of Vin de Glace
It all began in thewinter of 1794 , when an unusual cold snap grippedGermany. The vines were frozen solid, the grapes frozen solid. Loss for loss, the winegrowers resolved to press the grapes anyway. It was only after a slow maturation and the first tasting of this wine from beyond the grave that they realized they had just discovered a new process that produced a surprising and delicious wine! Their Austrian and Alsatian neighbors soon followed suit. German-speaking Austria copied the nameEiswein, while Alsace translated it into Vin de Glace. When, many years later, in 1973, a German immigrant to Canada found a suitable climate for the production of this winter wine, he named it Icewine.
Production
Today, Canada is the world's leading producer of icewine. Agreements between the above-mentioned countries have also been signed to regulate this specific production. But how is this wine made?
The grape varieties used to make vin de Glace are generally Riesling, Gewurztraminer or Grüner Veltliner, butChardonnay and even Merlot are also available.
The grapes are harvested late, during a period of frost, at night, when the temperature is between -6° and -12° (because the sweet juice doesn't freeze before -7°). It's pressed quickly, while the ripe grapes are still as hard as ice cubes. The juice is then fermented. The icy water disappears, and the acidity balances out the sweetness of the sugar-laden grapes.
Serve at 6° in a tasting glass, as an aperitif or with a hard cheese.
You have to drink it to believe it. The aromas and length on the palate are breathtaking!
As you may have gathered, production conditions are very special. There's a lot of loss (of over-ripe grapes, then of juice as the water evaporates), harvesting at night in winter is expensive, and plots of land, and therefore quantities, are limited.
All these factors make this a rare, and therefore expensive, wine. But who knows, maybe Santa Claus will concede us a second round of the chimney after a trying year. And at worst, he'll bring us a bottle next December...
