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An insider’s look at the first icewine harvest of the year in Niagara

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Note: We followed the 2011 grape harvest in Niagara through the writings of several Niagara insiders. This is the last post from Melissa Smits, a cellar/winery technician at Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery. This is her final report, on the icewine harvest, to wrap up our series.

Henry of Pelham 2011 Harvest Report
The Icewine Edition

By Melissa Smits

Hello readers,

I’m back with another piece for Rick here at Wines in Niagara.

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Melissa Smits.

As I compile the information on all of these vintages, I can start to gain some comprehension on winemaking and viticulture in the Niagara region. I’ve said it before; it’s not easy and it’s certainly not predictable. There’s about a million little decisions, conversations, trials and tastings to happen in order to shape what’s in that glass. We, in all industry roles, can all be very proud of the effort that stands behind that.

Speaking of things that are plentiful: we have a lot of deer in our area.  As well as birds of various feathers.  Lots!  They all love berries. We’ve also had a lot of mild weather.  As a result of both of these things, our 2011 Icewine tonnage is relatively low.  At 2 a.m. on Dec, 29, we hit -10° C and our fruit was brought in.

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Icewine berries are crushed in the basket press. Photo by Melissa.

This fruit doesn’t have to travel very far, so when the temperature is right we can bring it in to the presses quickly.  In a press release, Matt Speck (Vice President) said that we harvested around 40 tonnes total, about 2/3 of what we’d anticipated just over a month ago.

If you haven’t experienced the press house, the berries come in at night, when the temperature falls below -8° C, and are hard as rocks.  The water in the berry is almost all frozen, and at this temperature can guarantee juice at the target sugar level for VQA qualification as Icewine.

The juice that we start with for Icewine is 35+ °Brix, which translates roughly into 350 g/L residual sugar (°Brix is a measure of soluble solids in grape juices for wine, which includes acids that also increase in concentration by the freeze).

We have to press these in wooden basket presses (top photo) instead of the bladder presses to get the best extraction of juice and relative ease of skin removal: the leftovers are a heavy, frozen puck of skins and ice.  Grapes at slightly warmer temperatures can make our two Special Select Late Harvest wines from Vidal and Riesling.  This category refers to juices that start out at a sugar level between 32 and 35 °Brix—still quite sweet, and finishing at around 10% alcohol like the Icewines.

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Icewine juice after pressing. Melissa photo.

Additionally, it can tolerate the longer hang time, the berries stay much more intact before pressing. The Icewines will all be interesting when they’re done and ready to be bottled, however I tend to prefer their expressions once they’ve had some time to age — the two white varietals are prime candidates for this.

I guess from a tasting perspective, the wines have a lot of potential to develop further layers of complexity.  Over time the sweetness balances out with dried fruit peel and other tertiary aromas, and combined with the viscosity on the palate Icewines can be really remarkable once the time has passed.

The Cabernet Franc Icewine is one sweet wine that I’ve paired with chocolate with nice results, because the strawberry and raspberry jam characteristics really pop out when matched.  Go for dark chocolate as opposed to milk or sweeter chocolates—as a rule the dessert should not be sweeter-tasting than the Icewine.  This type of Icewine can age too, however I have not tasted too many examples of this — I think it’s mostly a question of what was made in the area 10 or more years ago.

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Icewine grape stomp down.

There’s lots of anticipation, and we try to prepare as much as we can before we have to get the presses running.  As I mentioned in some of the previous Henry of Pelham reports, there’s definitely 2011 wines that should be sought.  The sweet stuff is another addition to our own mosaic of varietals, vintages and styles.

A lifetime could be spent learning about all of the possible things we can do with our wine grapes—at least everything’s close to home.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa Smits