Ice Wine

Ice Wine is an Americanized pronunciation of the German Eiswein. First made in Germany and Austria, it is now made in Canada, New York, Michigan and Oregon as well. You may also find ice wine listed by its French name, vin de glace. Ice Wine is made from very ripe, frozen grapes that have been picked by hand, one at a time – either in the middle of the night or at daybreak – by workers wearing gloves so that their hands don’t warm the grapes. As the frozen grapes are pressed, the very sweet, high-acid, concentrated juice is separated from the ice in the grapes. The wine is made solely from the concentrated juice. (The ice is thrown away.) The result is wonderfully high in both sweetness and acidity, making drinking it a sweet and ethereal treat.

In order to be true eiswein the grapes must be frozen naturally on the vine. If the ice wine comes from Germany, Austria, or Canada, it is guaranteed to be made that way. In other places what is called “eiswein” is sometimes produced by freezing grapes in a commercial freezer. As far as purists are concerned, the freezer method is definitely cheating. But as to the dent in your pocketbook, the freezer-made ice wines taste the same and cost less than half as much.