Canada might not surpass California’s Napa Valley, but the country can produce one that NApa will never be able to: ice wine.
When life hands you frozen grapes, make ice wine. That’s what Walter Hainle did after an early, unexpected frost hit his vineyard in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley in 1972. Having lived in Germany and seen eiswein, or ice wine, made from grapes frozen on the vine, he picked the fruit and pressed it before it could thaw, yielding 40 liters (10.5 gallons) of ice wine. His approach was a relatively new one, as far as history goes. The ancient Romans probably made something like ice wine, but its secrets were forgotten until the 1790s when growers in Germany lost a lot of grapes to early, severe winter. The dispirited farmers left the frozen fruit on the vine with the idea of picking it when in winter. But one winemaker decided to try pressing the frozen grapes anyway… and discovered that although the process yielded very little wine, the result was was exceptionally sweet and delicious. when temperatures drop below -8 C (17F) or so, most of the water in the grape freezes. But sugars and other dissolved solids keep the last drops from freezing. So each grape yields only a little liquid – about 5 percent the amount you’d get if you pressed it unfrozen- but it contains all the grape’s flavor and sugar in it. And because it is more concentrated, its taste is richer and sweeter.
