Ice wine

I was reading a wine magazine I bought in the store last night. Most of it is charts and grades. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

I came across the phrase "ice wine" and said to myself "What is that?", and so Self went to google, and this is what she found:

Icewine is a late-harvest wine made from grapes pressed while frozen.

To make Icewine, the grapes are left on the vine until after the first frost hits. These grapes are harvested after being frozen in the vineyard and then, while still frozen, they are pressed. They must be picked early - before 10 a.m. During both of these processes the temperature cannot exceed -8 degrees C. At this temperature the berries will freeze as hard as marbles. The water portion of each grape separates from the sugar, flavour and acid components. The water freezes and crystallizes, leaving the other components as suspended liquid drops among the water crystals. While the grape is still in its frozen state, it is pressed and the water is driven out as shards of ice. This leaves a highly concentrated juice, very high in acids, sugars and aromatics.

Is that cool or what? No pun intended. Maybe you Canadians are OK after all. Icewine is usually served slightly chilled with dessert or as the dessert.

Here's some links, kiddies:

http://www.ontariograpes.com/icewine.html

http://www.icewineniagara.net/

http://www.winesofcanada.com/icewine.html

http://www.jostwine.com/ice_wine.html

We just missed The 10th Niagara Icewine Festival January 14 - 23, 2005 -- of course! Just my luck. Mr. C and I could have met Erik and his lovely wife out at Niagara Falls. Oh well, maybe next year.