What is ice wine?

Ice wine is made because the grapes are harvested frozen and pressed frozen, the frozen water staying behind in the press as ice.

What comes out of the press is therefore not ordinary grape juice, but the part that has not frozen: the juice with the sugar, the acids and the flavour compounds in it. The Deutsches Weininstitut describes Eiswein as wine from grapes that are picked in a frozen state at below minus seven degrees Celsius and pressed frozen.

For this, the grapes hang on the vine for months, protected from birds and waiting for a night with enough frost.

In Germany the grapes must be picked at at least seven degrees below zero and pressed in a frozen state.

That limit is not a guideline but a condition for the Prädikat Eiswein. If harvesting takes place at warmer temperatures, part of the water thaws and the effect on which the whole method rests disappears.

Because frost cannot be planned, picking sometimes takes place in the middle of the night or in the early morning, when the temperature is at its lowest.

With ice wine, frost concentrates the juice, whereas with a Beerenauslese the fungus Botrytis cinerea makes the water evaporate from the grape.

The result is not the same. With noble rot, the fungus also changes the composition of the grape; with ice wine, the grape stays chemically closer to its starting point and it is mainly about concentration.

Both belong to the Prädikat levels in Germany, but they are two separate designations with their own requirements.

Without a night with at least seven degrees of frost at the right moment, no Eiswein can be made.

The grapes hang on the vine until that night, running the risk of rain, wind, birds and rot in the meantime. If the frost does not come, the harvest is lost or an ordinary wine is made from it.

Because of that, ice wine is not available from every area every year and the supply differs greatly per vintage.

Degrees Oechsle measure how much dissolved matter, mainly sugar, is in the must; the higher the number, the sweeter the starting juice.

The Deutsches Weininstitut gives a range of 83 to 100 degrees Oechsle for Auslese and 110 to 128 degrees for Eiswein, depending on the wine region. Germany has thirteen of those regions, each with its own minimum requirements per grape variety.

A high must weight therefore says something about the starting material, not about the sugar content of the finished wine.

In the wine & spirits shop at Brink 2 in Bathmen, the dessert wines are kept together, including bottles in a smaller size.

Zoekt u een specifieke ijswijn of een fles voor een cadeau, vraag het dan aan de toonbank of bel 0570 541 278. Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan mensen onder de 18 jaar: NIX18.