Frozen grapes are carefully, but quickly, hand-plucked from the vines, and while still frozen, gently pressed to extract their juice. Unlike any other grape harvest, the much-anticipated ice wine harvest usually takes place in the dark of the night, when at last temperatures fall to targeted levels and mature grapes freeze on vines. Rock-hard frozen grapes are carefully plucked from the vines and placed in shallow crates, as daylight greets the cold, but hardy pickers. Co-existing with frozen water crystals inside grape skins, are the ripe sugars, acids and concentrated flavors characteristic of ice wines. And here s where the magic begins.
Water stays frozen longer than other vital components within well-ripened grapes.
As ice wine grapes are harvested and begin to warm, frozen water begins to crystallize, while the remaining components hang suspended as highly concentrated liquid drops among the water crystals, with sugar and flavor levels two to three times higher than those of grapes harvested earlier in the season. Pressing must be prompt but gentle to capture the prized juice. Only a few drops of concentrated juice emerge from each individual grape. In fact, it can require up to an entire vine to produce a single bottle of wine. This concentrated juice is fermented very slowly up to several months until it stops fermenting naturally.