What is Icewine?

Very Special and Cuisine Wine On A Consistent Basis!

Icewine is wine produced from grapes that have been naturally frozen while still on the vine in the Canadian Niagara Peninsula.The sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, but the water does, allowing for a more concentrated grape juice to develop. The icewine grapes’ must is pressed from the frozen grapes, resulting in a smaller amount of more concentrated, luscious luxury sweet wine with intense flavors. Only healthy grapes keep in good shape until the opportunity arises for an ice wine harvest. There are rigorous specifications regulating the making of Icewine set out by Canada’s quality control and appellation of origin system, the VQA (Vintner’s Quality Alliance). Artificial freezing of the grapes is strictly prohibited. Icewine production is limited to the world’s wine-growing regions where the necessary cold sub zero temperatures can be expected to be reached with some regularity. Canada and Germany are the world’s largest producers of ice wines. About 75 percent of the ice wine produced in Canada comes from Ontario. The pioneer status of the Inniskillin winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, came from their first ice wine, produced in 1984, often being mentioned as Canada’s first ice wine. Inniskillin Icewine is well renowned as the world leader in Icewine production and supply. It is sold in over 74 countries and is the #1 distributed wines in Global Travel Retail.  It can be found around the world on the wine lists of famous restaurants and hotels, in collector’s cellars and on many major airlines. Icewine was first made by the Germans, where it is called Eiswein. The original concept for German Eiswein was the result of an unexpected frost during the winter of 1794, when Franconian peasants tried to produce wine from semi-frozen grapes. More than 200 years later, Icewine is celebrated as a specialty wine offering a tantalizing and complex sensory experience. Icewine is produced from French hybrids such as Vidal (the 1989 Inniskillin Icewine award winner) as well as Vitis vinifera grapes which include Riesling and Cabernet Franc.