British Columbia’s wine industry will likely harvest its largest ever crop of icewine this year.
Twenty-nine wineries have registered crops for icewine production, and more than 1,000 tons of frozen grapes will be harvested from Okanagan vineyards.
“In B.C., icewine is an important sector, though not necessarily as much as, say, other regions, like Ontario,” said Miles Prodan, president of the B.C. Wine Institute.
“Ontario produces more icewine than B.C. and has more overall acreage, so, to begin with, they have more grapes.”
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Icewine is closely regulated in Canada. Growers are required to pre-register their grapes, identifying them as allocated for icewines long before the expected harvest.
As well, there are many regulations around how these grapes are produced, collected and made into wine.
“A producer can’t, at the last minute, get frozen out and use his grapes for icewine,” said Prodan. “The grapes must be registered in advanced.”
There was a time when B.C. was known mainly for icewine, but that has changed.
“As years have passed, B.C.’s table wines have continued gaining international awards, with, today, table wines doing as well if not better when it comes to market access,” said Prodan. “As wineries gain the ability to expand their offerings, they can diversify, so they’re taking advantage of that.”
Prodan said the number of wineries registering for icewine production has increased in the last couple of years, which he suspects is due to the Asian market opening up and the fact that B.C. producers have always been interested in the product.
“It certainly has been growing over the last number of years, with this year being the highest to date,” said Prodan.
“We’ve also had an expansion of our overall acreage with our plantings now up to about 10,000 acres. But we’re also starting to max out in acreage in the Okanagan suitable for grape growing. There is a finite amount of land suitable for it in all of B.C.”
Prodan doesn’t anticipate that icewine production in B.C. will increase much more because of the associated risks.
“There have been years where it doesn’t get down to the required freezing point, so the crop isn’t taken in,” he said. “In general, the later it gets, the less juice you’re able to produce, so it’s a real race against Mother Nature, as is all farming.”
Prodan said B.C. icewine producers were fortunate this year with an uncommonly early cold snap in November.
“There were actually two freezes so far, and growers went out each time to harvest as much as possible,” he said.
“We’ve about 960 tonnes picked (as of Dec. 6) and that is of the registered 1,140 tones, so there’s a pretty good chance we’ll get most if not all of that in. The U.S.A. is also increasingly interested in our wine. It’s the export market (the Asian market) that’s of most interest for icewine, though there are locals who enjoy it as well.”
- Grape vines are netted in autumn to protect them from birds.
- Grapes are then left on the vine until a sustained temperature of – 8 C or lower is reached. Between the end of the growing season and harvest, the grapes dehydrate and the juices are concentrated and develop the characteristic complexity of icewine.
- During icewine season, wineries and grape growers keep a watch on the weather forecast looking for an optimum stretch of between -10 and -12 C. This range will produce juice in the desired range for sweetness.
- Typically, six hours is needed to harvest and press the grapes, and it is usually an overnight job. Most small and medium-sized wineries harvest by hand.
- Once grapes are harvested, they are pressed in small hydraulic presses under much higher pressure than normal for grapes harvested in the regular season. Because the grapes are frozen, most water is left behind as ice in the press. Juice yields for icewine grapesare much lower than for table wines, with average yields of 500 litres for each acre netted, or approximately 15 percent ofthe expected yield for grapes harvested for table wines.
