Kathy Malone "hates" Icewine

Photo: Winemaker Kathy Malone

Hillside Winery’s veteran winemaker, Kathy Malone, writes what seems to be a monthly commentary that is sent to everyone registered on Hillside’s email list. I highly recommend registering. And you may also want to order some Hillside wine while you are at it. The quality is very high. Kathy’s latest commentary is titled, provocatively, “Why I hate Icewine.” Then she writes: “Of course I don’t hate Icewine. It is truly nectar of the gods, with its rich aromas, concentrated flavours and unctuous texture.” She goes on to allude to the challenges and frustrations of making wine from grapes that, by regulation, must be picked no warmer than -8◦C. “The lay person would be amazed by how often in a season we approach but don’t meet that temperature, and more amazed how often that happens on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, vineyard manager’s birthday etc.!”

In the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys, the necessary Icewine freeze has happened occasionally in mid-November, more often in December and occasionally as late as mid-February. That seems to have happened this year when the winter had been unusually mild until recently. Only seven wineries picked for Icewine of the 14 that had registered in advance with the British Columbia Wine Authority. Only 61 tons of grapes wee picked. An Icewine harvest in mid-February is not ideal. Most of the grapes left for Icewine will long since have been eaten by birds; or knocked to the ground by wine; or become too desiccated to yield much juice for wine. There is not much juice to begin: frozen grapes yield about 20% of the juice compared to the yield for table wine. That is why Icewine is always going to be expensive (and probably not very profitable for the wineries either).

Twenty years ago, I wrote a book called Icewine: The Complete Story. It was, and remains, the only thorough book that I am aware of dealing with the history of Icewine and profiling most of the producers in the world. Thanks to the ineptitude of the publisher, it has been out of print for a long time. Amazon still has some used copies available. Many of the producers I interviewed had horror stories about trying to make Icewine. The late Karl Kaiser, the Austrian-born winemaker who put Canadian wine on the map with Inniskillin Icewine, first left grapes hanging to freeze in 1983 without netting the wines. He lost the entire harvest one afternoon to a voracious flock of starlings. I picked up the story in my book: “I didn’t know where to buy nets here,” Kaiser admitted later. “And I didn’t know how ravenous the birds were either.” Meanwhile, Walter Strehn, another Austrian and the winemaker at the new Pelee Island winery near Windsor, had the foresight to import netting from Europe that year for the vines he set aside for icewine on Pelee Island, a 4,000-hectare island positioned in Lake Erie on two major migratory flyways for birds. He draped the white nets across at least eight rows of vines, protecting a quantity of grapes that, if made into Icewine, would have created a considerable sensation. The netting worked too well, trapping birds as well as protecting the grapes. Strehn’s nets were dismantled by conservation officers from the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources, who charged Strehn with trapping birds out of season. While the charges were dropped later, birds ate about $25,000 worth of Strehn’s unprotected grapes, primarily Riesling. Even so, he salvaged enough Vidal to make a commercial quantity of Icewine in 1983, shipping about one hundred cases to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario where the wine retailed for $12.50 a half bottle. After little was sold, the LCBO returned it to the winery for refund. Subsequently, Pelee Island found more remunerative markets in the United States and when the Icewine began selling there for more than $100 a bottle, the LCBO begged to have it back.

Another harrowing experience was recounted by Austrian producer Sepp Moser, the owner of Weingut Sepp Moser: Moser’s Eiswein is made primarily from grapes in a Chardonnay vineyard only six-tenths of a hectare in size, just across the street from the mansion, beside a busy road that usually deters birds and other predators. “I remember a situation in 1982,” Sepp Moser recalls. “We had eleven and a half hectares of Grüner Veltliner hanging for Eiswein until January 6 of 1983. It was a quite a quantity of grapes but 1982 was a very big harvest, so we left them because our cellars [at Lenz Moser] were completely filled. On a Friday it was snowing and getting cold. I looked forward to harvesting on Monday.” The snowfall was so heavy on Sunday afternoon that it completely covered the ground where the birds had foraged, driving them onto the vines. “Almost the complete Eiswein harvest was finished by the birds. On Monday morning, there was nothing left, just a few kilos. It could have been a very high quality Eiswein.”

That is not to deny the romantic appeal of Icewine (Eiswein in German) to some producers. Typical was the attitude of Günther Thies, who was the general manager of the prestigious German producer, Schloss Schönbrun, when I interviewed him. “Picking Eiswein is something special,” Thies says. “It is fun. We start at four o’clock in the morning and we finish at seven. We have breakfast later on together and we have some of our Schnapps to get warm. We have a lot of customers who ask to come out with us. There is a special atmosphere and there is a story that they can tell later, that they have been part of the Eiswein picking at Schloss Schönborn or wherever. You can see in the newspapers that a lot of politicians go out, doing Eiswein picking for publicity.”

While researching that book, I tasted close to 500 Icewines from producers all over the world. I agree with Kathy Malone that it is the nectar of the gods. I have never understood why producers – at least those in Canada, where most of the world’s Icewine is made – have never positioned the wine properly. Because it is a dessert wine does not mean it need always be served with dessert, which can be an overload of sweetness. Austria makes some of the world’s greatest desserts – but I do not remember an Austrian winemaker ever offering a Sacher Torte with an Eiswein. Invariably, a cheese plate was offered. My favourite pairing with Icewine is a soft blue cheese like Cambozola. I also prefer Icewine as an aperitif; it can be too rich for dessert.