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Story by Lisa Anderson
Photos by Julianna Hayes, BCWine.com

Cold weather inspires both fear and hope in the hearts of wine growers throughout the Pacific Northwest. While freezing temperatures in the early fall can bring about devastating losses in vineyards, in the late fall and winter they allow for the production of one of nature’s most unusual and delectable gifts—ice wine.

Creation of ice wine is a magical thing in itself. Harvest cannot take place unless perfect conditions are in order. First, fruit must be ripened completely on the vine. Second, a frost must be present (ideally for several days in a row), with the temperature ranging somewhere between –13 and –8 degrees Celsius (or about 8.6 and 17.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Winemakers watch and wait until these two defining moments line up, and then… let the harvest begin. And when it does, let it be fast and furious. 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. But it is precisely these low yields that create the winemaker’s desired effect—juice that is full of intense, sweet, true-to-varietal flavors with just the right balance of acidity. This concentrated juice is fermented very slowly—up to several months—until it stops fermenting naturally. The resulting ice wine, bottled in a 375 ml bottle, makes for a delicious treat on its own or as an accompaniment to almost any dessert.

German Roots

The ice wine story is a relatively new one, compared with the long histories of other wines of the world. Germany originated the unique drink, called “Eiswein.” The first Eiswein harvests took place in Franconia in 1794 when peasants tried to produce wine from partially frozen grapes that resulted from an unexpected frost. Their idea took root; records show that harvests were carried out in the Rhineland in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars. While Germany today continues to be a prominent producer of the special dessert wine, other regions of the world have emerged as quality ice wine producers—and nowhere more so than North America.

The Pacific Northwest Ice Wine Story

The northern reaches of the Pacific Northwest are particularly well-suited to and well known for ice wine making. Cold winters are the norm in this part of the world; temperatures often reach the range necessary for harvesting frozen grapes. British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, Washington State, Oregon and Idaho all boast wineries that take pride in producing vintages of this special wine – when nature permits. Here in the Pacific Northwest, several different varietals are used to make ice wine, including Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Ehrenfelser, Chenin Blanc, Vidal, Pinot Gris, Gamay, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Semillon and even Pinot Noir.

British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley leads
Pacific Northwest in ice wine production

The first ice wine to appear on the Canadian front was a Riesling ice wine, made in British Columbia by Walter Hainle in 1973. Tilman Hainle (Walter’s son) and his wife Sandra continued experimenting with ice wines at their Hainle Vineyards in the Okanagan, ultimately producing their first commercial release in 1978. In 1991, other Okanagan winemakers joined in, capitalizing on the early onset of cold temperatures that year and plenty of frozen grapes on the vine.

Today, Canada is the world’s largest exporter of ice wines. British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley wineries produce far more ice wine than any other region in the Pacific Northwest. In producing these much-sought-after ice wines, some BC winemakers follow guidelines set for them by the Vintner’s Quality Alliance (VQA), a government-sanctioned voluntary association of vintners that sets strict winemaking standards for its members. Member wineries that follow these standards are allowed to display the VQA label on their wine bottles—a sign of dependable quality for consumers. The VQA also trademarked the word “icewine” (as opposed to ice wine) as another way to communicate VQA-approved ice wines.

Winemakers in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia produce a wide range of ice wines, made from both white and red grape varietals. According to Sandra Kochan, director of Sales and Marketing at Quail’s Gate Winery in the Northern Okanagan Valley, Riesling is often a popular choice because of its ability to withstand the cold winter temperatures

"The fruit has thick skin which enable it to hang successfully until harvest while holding its acidity,” Kochan explains. “It gives you the fruit character you’re looking for.”

Quail’s Gate, founded in 1989, has been producing its award-winning Riesling ice wine since 1993. Today the winery’s case production of the dessert wine is up to 500-600 cases annually. Its most recent vintage, 1998, earned “Best of Class” and a gold medal in the 2000 Los Angeles County Fair and took home a gold medal from the 2000 Okanagan Fall Wine Festival. No ice wine was made in the 1999 vintage, but Winemaker Ashley Hooper anticipates releasing a 2000 vintage in late summer or early fall of 2001. While the wine is available across British Columbia and in several Northwest markets, 80-85% is sold at the winery itself.

Quail’s Gate is just one of several wineries in the Northern Okanagan currently producing different varietals of ice wine. Others include Calona Vineyards, Mission Hill Winery, Summerhill Estate Winery and Gray Monk Estate Winery. Kelowna’s Calona Vineyards has been recognized in competitions for its Pinot Blanc Icewine, and Mission Hill (just outside of Kelowna) for its Vidal and Riesling Icewines. Summerhill’s winemaker, Alan Marks, makes two ice wines—Riesling and Pinot Noir. Marks is only one of a few winemakers to produce an ice wine from this red grape varietal. Domaine Combret Estate Winery in the South Okanagan Valley also produces a Pinot Noir ice wine (as well as a Riesling), and Calona Vineyards plans to release a Pinot Noir Icewine soon. Gray Monk (owned and operated by the Heiss family) and Calona Vineyards both produce Ehrenfelser ice wine—a varietal that is a cross between Riesling and Sylvaner. Calona will soon release another red ice wine — Verdelet — a Bordeaux grape grown in the South Okanagan Valley.

In the Central Okanagan Valley, Winemaker Mark Wendenburg of Sumac Ridge Estate Winery has been making a Pinot Blanc Icewine for several years. The oldest estate winery in the Province, Sumac Ridge has received many top awards for this ice wine—most recently earning second place with its ’98 vintage in the Walter Hainle Award for Best Icewine at the Okanagan Ice Wine Festival held in January. Other awards for this wine include a gold medal at the 20th Annual Okanagan Fall Wine Festival this past October and a bronze at the 2000 All Canadian Wine Championships. The winery is now offering its 1999 vintage of the wine.

Located in the Southern part of the valley just southwest of Okanagan Falls, Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards makes two distinctive ice wines. The 1998 Ehrenfelser Icewine has garnered numerous gold and silver awards at prestigious wine-judging competitions, including a gold at the Enological Society's Pacific Northwest Wine Festival in 2000. Its 1997 vintage was just as well received. Early in Hawthorne’s winemaking history, a rare Oraniensteiner ice wine was produced. The varietal, however, was difficult to market because it is a varietal with which most people are unfamiliar. Regrettably, it was decided to make this ice wine’s first vintage its last.

Other examples of high quality ice wines in the Southern Okanagan Valley include those made by Jackson-Triggs and Tinhorn Creek Vineyards. Jackson-Triggs, like renowned ice wine producer Inniskillin, has a counterpart producing ice wines in the province of Ontario. If awards are any indication, they seem to have discovered a winning combination for creating perfect ice wines. The 1998 Grand Reserve Riesling Icewine took home “Best of Show” in the category of Dessert Wines in the 2000 San Francisco International Wine Competition, while the Proprietor’s Reserve Riesling Icewine was rated a score of 91 in Wine Spectator Magazine for its 1996 vintage. A gold medal for its 1998 was earned at both the 2000 Tri-Cities Wine Festival and Jerry Mead’s 2000 New World International Wine Competition. At the Okanagan Wine Festival in January, Jackson-Triggs won yet another prize with its recently released 1999 vintage ice wine. Their Grand Reserve Riesling Icewine took third place in the Walter Hainle Award for Best Icewine.

Tinhorn Creek, likewise, caught the judges’ attention at Jerry Mead’s 2000 competition. The winery received a gold for its 1999 Kerner Icewine. Winemaker Sandra Oldfield likes using Kerner for ice wine, because “the grapes have a wonderful habit of retaining their acidity well into winter months so that the resulting wine is balanced and not too syrupy.”

Domaine Combret Estate Winery, a family-owned and operated winery in the Southern Okanagan Valley, produces a total of about 5000 cases of wine each year. Production includes estate-grown Chardonnay, Riesling, Gamay Noir, and Cabernet Franc, as well as two ice wines—a Riesling and a Pinot Noir. Tenth-generation winemaker Olivier Combret studied winemaking in France. He began winemaking in the Okanagan in 1993 with the estate’s first Chardonnay, which became a first for Canada as well. Domaine Combret's 1993 Chardonnay was the first Canadian wine awarded in the Chardonnay du Monde competition in Burgundy, the main international forum for fine Chardonnays. Olivier is a hands-on winemaker and personally harvested the fruit for his 1999 Pinot Noir Ice Wine in January 2000, picking grapes from the winery’s own vineyards.

Washington State’s Ice Wine Affair

While British Columbia unquestionably leads the Northwest in the production of ice wines, other regions are finding success with the unique wine as well. In Washington State, ice wine production thrives across the Columbia and Yakima Valleys. While Washington winemakers are not assured as many winters of extreme cold temperatures, as do those in the more northern Okanagan Valley, winters are still quite cold, bringing good ice wine harvesting conditions in most years. Wineries such as Claar Cellars, Covey Run Vintners, Apex Cellars, Columbia Crest and Chateau Ste. Michelle, just to name a few, include different varietals of ice wines in their lineups.

In the Columbia Valley of Washington, winemaker Bela Varga of Claar Cellars describes harvesting frozen grapes this past winter as a cold, dark experience. “We took some Vodka with us to keep warm.”

Varga, trained at one of Europe’s oldest winemaking programs at the University of Budapest, climbed over the iron curtain—scaling barbed wire fences—to leave his native Hungary. He ended up in Washington where he now produces several European varietals of ice wine, including a Botrytisized Riesling ice wine. This wine benefits from the presence of Botrytis Cinereon, referred to as noble rot, a mold that helps to further concentrate sugar levels of grapes before harvest and adds characteristic flavors to the wine. Varga was pleased to share that his 1997 ice wine vintage was named “Among the top 25” in the 2000 German Ministry International Riesling Challenge held in November.

In the Yakima Valley, Gewürztraminer is the ice wine grape of choice for winemaker Brian Carter of Apex Cellars. (See notes for his 1997 Gewürztraminer Ice Wine.) Carter, who recently celebrated his twentieth year as a Washington winemaker, says he faces two primary challenges in producing the wine: having cold enough temperatures to freeze the grapes substantially, and keeping birds from getting to the grapes before they can be picked. In 1998, Carter learned the hard way the kind of damage birds could cause; starlings destroyed an entire vineyard of Chenin Blanc in a matter of days. Hoping to eliminate this problem, the winery implemented a netting system for the first time just this past year.

Carter uses Gewürztraminer grapes from the winery’s own Outlook Vineyard in the Yakima Valley appellation where he sets aside an acre devoted to ice wine grape development. He chose the Gewürztraminer grape for making ice wine because of its German origins. This past season, the winery harvested nearly 3 ½ tons of fruit on December 14, 2000 when temperatures dipped to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Carter is quite pleased with the wine’s development thus far.

"This vintage displays incredible aromatic qualities with a lot of floral character,” he reports. Apex Cellars’ 2000 vintage of Gewürztraminer ice wine—the winery’s third vintage of this wine—is slated for release this upcoming summer (2001) and should yield about 130 cases.

A neighbor of Apex Cellars in the Yakima Valley, Covey Run Vintners, produced one of the first ice wines in Washington State in 1986. The winery has since produced nine vintages of its ice wines, made from Riesling and Chenin Blanc grapes. Winemaker Kerry Norton, who came to Covey Run from Oregon’s Eola Hills Winery in 1999, believes the bright acidity in the fruit gives his wines their distinct character. The 1998 Reserve Chenin Blanc Ice Wine was produced with grapes taken from Buoy Vineyards, while the 1997 Reserve Riesling Ice Wine was made with grapes harvested from the winery’s estate vineyard—Whiskey Canyon. While the winery was not able to produce an ice wine in 1999 or 2000 (mild winter years), Norton fully expects to continue making more ice wines in upcoming years.

A few from Oregon, too

Moving further south to Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Duck Pond Cellars has created a Semillon ice wine for three years. Owned by the Fries family, with son Greg Fries as winemaker, Duck Pond owns vineyards in Washington State, as well as in Oregon. The winery’s Semillon ice wine is made with grapes harvested from their eastern Washington vineyard, Desert Wind, in the Columbia Valley appellation. The 1998 vintage of this wine garnered a silver medal at the 2000 Oregon State Fair. The 1999 vintage is scheduled for release in April 2001; for the first time, the wine will be available across the Northwest in numerous markets.

Another Oregon winery, Bridgeview Vineyards, produces a Gewürztraminer ice wine in its Harvest Moon series. Located in the sunny Illinois Valley near Southern Oregon's coastal mountains, the winery first planted its vines in 1980 and released its first wines in 1986. The 1999 Bridgeview Harvest Moon Ice Wine Gewürztraminer has been gaining recognition in the Northwest, garnering a gold medal at the Northwest Wine Summit this past year, and a bronze at the Oregon State Fair.

Even Idaho tries the Magic of Ice

And finally, traveling east into Idaho’s Snake River Valley, one will find Ste. Chapelle Winery in Caldwell, Idaho—the State’s only producer of ice wine. In 1998, former Winemaker Steven Roberto set aside a block within the winery’s own vineyards to grow Riesling. He was successful in producing about 380 cases of ice wine that year—the winery’s first and only vintage to date. (See notes for the 1998 Riesling Ice Wine.) Although no ice wines were created in 1999 or 2000, the winery’s new winemaker, Chuck Devlin, hopes “to experiment more in the future.”

When asked what would motivate him to handpick grapes in the middle of the night in freezing cold temperatures, Devlin’s reply may sum up the reason for all Northwest winemakers: “Making ice wines, and late harvest wines in general, is always a fun experience. They are a fresh addition to the mainstream wines we produce.”

Keeping up on Northwest ice wine production (still in its relative infancy) should prove a rewarding — and sweet — proposition. International demand for the unique product continues to grow, and the wines continue to rise in both popularity and quality.

Bring on the Magic!

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