“The 2007 icewine will be the one that everybody looks for,”. Charlie Pillitteri  predicted, surveying the now-empty vineyards at Pillitteri Winery.  The harvest started Jan. 3 when the temperature plunged to 12 F for the third night in a row. The cold crystallized the body of the grapes and brought the sweetness up to about 42 brix, well above the minimum required to earn the title “Canadian Icewine.”

 A few kilometres away, at Reif Estate Winery,  Klaus Reif was positively beaming. “This year the quantity is about the same as last year, and the quality is superb.”   

The initial cold snap in January turned into a warm spell, where farmers could only watch as the birds enjoyed a feast of grapes, reducing the harvest quantity. When the next cold snap hit two weeks later and temperatures plunged to 12 F, they were able to finish the bulk of the harvest. And 12 F meant that they were getting a naturally occurring 42 brix, the dream of every icewine maker, a very high quality juice.  

There are similar stories across the Canadian VQA appellation Niagara Peninsula, where the bulk of Canadian icewine grapes are grown. Farmers take their first crop off in late September for table wine production and then screw up their courage and leave grapes on the vine for what has become the signature wine of Canada. They place nets over many of the vines and hope that the cold spell will create the grapes that winemakers can turn into one of the most expensive and sought after wines in the world. It is a gamble that will pay off with the 2007 harvest.

While ice wines were first made in Germany in the 1800s, Canadian winemakers began to develop the icewines in the late 1970s. The world started to take notice in 1987 when Robert M Parker rated Klaus Reif’s 1987 Vidal Icewine among the 10 best wines of the year. Then Inniskillin’s 1989 Vidal Icewine won the Grand Prix trophy in Bordeaux in June 1991. In 2003 Vineland Estates won both the Grand Vinitaly Award for Best Winery and the Gold Medal for their 1999 Vidal Icewine.  

Klaus Reif, the only winemaker to make icewine in both Canada and Germany is also pleased with the cold snap in Germany that allowed the first significant harvest of eiswein (as it is known in Germany) grapes in three years.

  “After two mild winters, Germany is back producing great Eiswein. The -6C temperature means we can get a good sweetness level and put out a great eiswein product,” Reif said.

 The minimum sweetness required to make eiswein in Germany is 28-30 Brix while in Canada, winemakers must start at a naturally occurring 35 brix to earn the name “Canadian Icewine,” which is why harvest levels of 42 brix have made Pillitteri and Reif very happy.   

Phil Cheevers is the managing director of VinoCanada, a Niagara firm which exports Canadian wines to Russia and the CIS. When Charlie and Klaus are happy, Phil is also happy.