Ice Wine

Ice wine or spelled icewine is a type of dessert wine that is produced from grapes that have been frozen during the freezing cold of winter and on the vine. The sugars do not freeze but the water does. This allows for more concentrated grape and produces a very sweet wine.

In the northern hemisphere, there is extreme cases of cold and this gives ice wine its distinct taste and characteristic. Its sweetness is balanced out by its high acidity. Due to being labour intesive, there is only a small production of ice wines, thus, making it pricier than the other dessert wines.

The first ice wine made by Inniskillin is labelled "Eiswein" in 1984. Inniskillin is known to be the forerunner of ice wine production. It was under the direction Karl Kaiser. Their vineyards are in Ontario, Canada.

This is often referred to as Canada's first ice wine, however, one has been produced by a German immigrant in 1972. Ice wine has soon become a hit and become very popular among critics and wine enthusiasts.

Internationally, it broken throught in 1991 when when Inniskillin's 1989 Vidal ice wine was awarded the Grand Prix d'Honneur at Vinexpo. Since then Canada has increased cultivation for such wine. Nowadays, it is established as a the largest producer of ice wine worldwide.

German Ice Wine like the German Eiswein is considered to be one of the famous yet the most expensive. Canadian Icewine is world renowned. However in other countiries like Austraila, Austria, Croatia, and France to name a few are produced in lower quantities.

Ice wines which are typically made out of Riesling. It is recognized by German winemakers to be so. However, these days, many wine makers are experimenting with other varieties. Conventionally, ice wines come in pale yellow or light gold in color and deep amber when they age.