Vin de Glaciere: Ice Wine

In the late 1790’s, the Germans became the first to realize the ethereal qualities of frozen grapes and to use them to commercially produce “Eiswein”-- wine made from grapes that were left on the vines throughout winter until the final freeze of spring. They discovered that the cycle of freezing and thawing of the grapes concentrated the sugars and flavors of these little jewels.

One sip of the icy liquid gold that is as smooth as Thai silk and you will be in love with ice wine.

Close your eyes and imagine a flurry of honeybees floating on a cool breeze whispering over a mountain meadow of wildflowers-honeysuckle, daisies, yellow lupine, wild rose and California poppy. The colors are intense, the perfume exotic and fresh yet not overpowering.

The flavor of ice wine is sweet, with just a kiss of orange and citrus. Ice wine coats a crystal goblet with a thin layer of golden sheen that is nearly the consistency of maple syrup.

European immigrants brought the craft of making ice wine to the colder climates of North America, namely Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Today, the Okanagon Valley of British Columbia is home to hundreds of acres of vineyards devoted to the highly regarded art of sculpting frozen fruit into ice wine.

For most winemakers, March is traditionally a slow month. The previous year’s grape harvest was put to bed in oak barrels months before. March is the time to do a little spring cleaning around the tasting room in preparation for the busloads of thirsty travelers who will be descending on the wineries in April when the tourist season begins.

In Canada, the Vintners Quality Alliance or VQA, strictly regulates the creation of ice wine to ensure that strict quality standards are scrupulously followed. Ice wine must be naturally produced -- if a vintner is found to be using artificial means to “fast-freeze” his grapes, the VQA will cast off the rebel and relegate him back to to making simple table wines.

Birds and the weather are the biggest enemies of ice wine. The vines are literally tended to 24 hours a day from late October through March, in part to ward off any pesky starlings or blue jays that flock to the vines for a drunken party of iced grape juice.

The grapes must be picked at precisely the right moment when the natural sugars have reached their maximum level of sweetness without spoiling -- ideally somewhere between -10 C and -13 C. Picking the grapes in February can result in watery ice wine. Grapes picked too early are flooded with the vagaries of a dark, wet winter, yet haven’t been exposed to enough sun nor the invigorating power of an early spring snowstorm.

Making ice wine takes the utmost in terms of patience, like holding back one’s wanton desires until the flower is fully in bloom. You must wait just a few more weeks for the sugar in the grapes to concentrate their rare and precious flavors. Most of us would not be able to wait; we would seize the moment, yet be disappointed that we didn’t wait a bit longer. Only Mother Nature and luck can determine the precise time to pick the grapes. Of course, such special grapes must only be picked by hand.

Because only the most superb specimens can endure on the vines through such harsh winter conditions, quite often it takes an entire row of vines to produce enough grapes to yield just one slender and sleek bottle of ice wine.

Ice wine can be made using either red or white grapes, yet the Germans have taught us that Riesling and Gewurztraminer grape varieties make the best ice wines, owing in part to their incredible constitution and ability to withstand the most inhospitable cold winter conditions.

The skin of the Riesling grape is said to be as tough as leather, sort of like the skin of a polar bear, allowing the grapes to hold on the vine while insulating the sugars inside.

It should go without saying that owing to its incredible journey from blossom to frozen grape to bottle, ice wine is expensive. Yet ice wine vintners realize that a thing of beauty does not need to be big and as such, offer us half-bottles of their ice wine artistry. And because ice wine is such a rare and precious commodity, it must be served alone, not with cheese, not with nuts, nothing. Ice wine is simply at its best when it is served well-chilled, not frozen, in dainty little cordial glasses.

Many chefs have discovered that ice wine is not only for sating one’s thirst. Just a few drops of ice wine take an ordinary dish of chicken braised in wine to a level that elicits curious comments from around the dining room table.

“What is that slight sweetness I detect? Is it wine?”

“I just caught a whiff of the sweet perfume of gardenias. What did you put in the chicken?”

Ice wine. The mere mention of the name gives me chills.

Chicken “de Glaciere”
with Wild Mushrooms and Glazed Shallots

Ice Wine Jelly with Raspberry Sauce
and Almond Tuiles