Ice, Ice, Baby
Happy New Year! Ring it in with a smart sip of Canadiana – an icewine tasting party
AFEW YEARS AGO, I received a bottle of icewine for Christmas. Although I was wowed when I opened the gift bag, I never opened the bottle itself. A dry red enthusiast who prefers coffee with my cake, I had no idea what to do with a sweet wine. And so I re-gifted it to a girlfriend who, sadly, may have passed it along as well.
“Icewine is largely misunderstood in Canada,” says Debi Pratt, manager of public relations at Inniskillin Wines. “In the past, we marketed it as sweet when, in fact, it is a balance of natural acidity and sweetness. Also, we categorized it as a dessert wine, which is misleading; icewine pairs beautifully with a variety of savoury foods.”
Icewine is made from grapes that are frozen on the vine and then pressed while still frozen. The water within the grapes freezes, but the sugars don’t so the juice extracted is highly concentrated. Yields are low (you’d get about 10 times more if you were making table wine), which partially explains the premium price. Another reason you pay big bucks for the little bottle is that the making of icewine is risky. Grapes left to hang are vulnerable to birds, disease and unpredictable climate, any of which can damage or destroy the crop. As well, some vintners increase the risk by harvesting grapes only after they’ve gone through multiple freeze-thaw cycles.
More than 200 years after Germany introduced eiswein, Canada got in the game. In 1973, Hainle Vineyards in the Okanagan Valley produced the first batch, but it wasn’t until 1991 that Canada skated into the international spotlight. That year, Karl Kaiser, who co-founded Inniskillin along with Donald Ziraldo, wooed the world when the winery took the coveted Grand Prix d’Honneur for its 1989 Vidal Icewine at Bordeaux’s Vinexpo.
Today, we are recognized as the largest and best producer of icewine on
the planet with the top icewine drinking nations being, China and Japan.
Our high standards help. To earn the Vintner’s Quality Alliance (VQA) stamp of approval, icewine must be produced entirely from grapes that have been naturally frozen on the vine; the grapes can only be picked when the air temperature is –8 C or lower; the orbs must be pressed immediately while frozen; the sugar level of the juice extracted must reach at least 35 degrees Brix; and the finished wine must contain only the grape’s natural sugars.
A tall order but, happily, Mother Nature is on our side. She blesses us with idyllic conditions: long hot days in the summer, cool autumns and a quick drop in temperature when winter sets in. Yet, some years, she forces us into shorts in February and sweaters in July so, although we’re the only nation to consistently produce an icewine every vintage, it’s a gamble.
Daniel Speck, co-owner of Henry of Pelham in Niagara, likens the harvest to a military operation, which because of the colder temperatures generally takes place at night. “We’re highly organized. The equipment is ready, the crew is on call. When we get the nod, we grab our gear and go.”
Given the work involved and the battle with the elements, it troubles Speck that so many Canadians don’t indulge in this national treasure. To explore its many pairings and usages, he made it his 2009 New Year’s resolution to drink a bottle a week.
“I added it to recipes and used it to deglaze pans. I sipped it with charcuterie and paired it with curry. Some nights after my wife and kids went to bed, I’d watch the news enjoying a glass of icewine on its own.”
Newcomers to icewine often wonder which type to buy. Ezra Cipes, the CEO of Summerhill Pyramid Estates, an organic vineyard in the Okanagan, suggests trying a varietal you enjoy as a table wine. “It should deliver the same characteristics in a concentrated and honeyed way. Icewine is the essence of the grape, an expression of its purest form.”
With the harvest ideally falling be- tween mid-December and mid-January, New Year’s Eve is the perfect time to host an icewine tasting party. It’s also a good occasion to uncork the bottle you may have tucked away – generally, icewine is good for up to 10 years if it has been in a cool dark place but not the fridge. Experts recommend limiting your buds to four types – two whites and a red, plus either a “late harvest” bottle, which technically isn’t icewine, or a sparkling icewine that, thanks to the bubbles, is less sweet. Greet guests with a Frostbite Martini and, at midnight, add a splash of icewine to champagne.
Food-wise, chef Justin Downes of Niagara’s Vineland Estates offers two lobster recipes, which pair nicely with icewine because the natural sweetness in the lobster (as well as the cream it is often made with) works with the icewine’s balance of sugar and acidity. Both, too, are lazy-luxe – not too fussy but grand.
At some point in the evening, take your party outdoors. Skating, a winter walk or holding the countdown on the patio embraces the icewine theme. As Bruce Nicolson, chief winemaker at Inniskillin, says, “Icewine is Mother Nature’s gift for living through winter in Canada.”
Might as well open it.