Frozen Fruits

Canada's Icewine & Ice Cider

Between the woods and frozen lake, the darkest evening of the year.
-Robert Frost

…many people believe that none of the four seasons accurately describe the two months of darkness that all of Canada experiences in the months of July and August, so there’s now a movement to actually have a fifth season in Canada, and we have three names: the Slumber, the Equinox, or the Canadark. 
-Rick Mercer

Icewine

The above quotes may seem contradictory, but as a Canadian, my feelings on ice wine, or rather “icewine” as trademarked in Canada, are just that. Akin to my feelings for winter. Frost’s description of the hushed romantic beauty of a winter wonderland embodies a sentiment inherently linked to icewine. It’s a beauty that often enchants those who don’t have to forcibly deal with winter on a regular basis.

I can’t shake the feeling that in conversations with the international wine community, icewine comes up as something to say once it’s discovered I’m Canadian. It feels like stereotyping, but not in the same way that California Cabernet or Mendoza Malbec can be stereotyped. Not based on the fact that it’s a distinctive style of wine that has consistently been produced since the 1970s and is subject to trending perspectives, but rather based on the simplistic and almost dismissive train of thought that I’m a sommelier from Canada, and Canada is cold. Hence, icewine. For some reason it reminds me of a popular 2001 feature of the Canadian news satire show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, where comedian Rick Mercer convinced several people in the States to say earnestly on camera that they were firmly against the “Toronto Polar Bear Slaughter” and, “Congratulations Canada on preserving your national igloo.”

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with thinking of icewine when thinking of Canada. Canada is the largest icewine producer in the world, with production in around one hundred wineries countrywide. In 2012, sales surpassed 400,000 liters, valued at over $30 million. Canadian icewines have received numerous international awards: a 1989 Vidal icewine produced by Inniskillin, the estate winery started in 1975 by Dr. Karl Kaiser and Donald Ziraldo, notably won the Grand Prix d’Honneur at Bordeaux’s Vinexpo in 1991. The style of wine historically originates from Germany (eiswein), and is thought to have been accidentally discovered in 1794 when a sudden cold snap overtook the vineyards. Almost two hundred years later, the first Canadian icewine was commercially produced when Hainle Vineyards in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley released 178 bottles in 1978. The style has grown greatly in popularity and is now more consistently produced by Canada, where winters are more reliably cold, than by Germany.

Yes, that’s because Canada is super cold. Okay, okay. The main difference between icewine and other wines is, of course, the ice part. Specifically, the timing and temperature of harvest and pressing. But the sun and warmth of spring and summer and the extension into late fall are just as integrated into the process as the cold and darkness of winter, and there are many intricacies involved in the production process. There is more to it than just water freezing.

Regions of Production
Congratulations Canada on becoming part of North America.

To be sure, much of Canada exhibits winter climes that can be described as nothing less than frigorific. This is true particularly between December and February, when vines are in dormancy. But in the Niagara viticultural region in Ontario, where over 75% of Canada’s icewine is produced, the growing season of the grape between bloom and normal harvest, between mid-June and November, is comparable to most other cool climate viticultural regions, and can be warmer than regions such as Alsace and Champagne. The region falls between 41-44° N. Annual precipitation is around 543 mm and the mean July temperature is 22.5° C (72.5° F). Ontario has an average 1400 growing degree days—which is comparable to other cool winemaking regions in the world.

Niagara’s microclimates are tempered by Lake Ontario, which borders the north of the Niagara Peninsula. Unlike the “frozen lake” in Frost’s poem, the Great Lakes do not freeze over, and a continuous process of thermal exchange moderates the regional temperature. South of Lake Ontario, the Niagara Escarpment, a cuesta 30 to 50 metres high that runs along the peninsula, creates a recirculating airflow by redirecting air currents that pass over from the lake. 

The Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, the second-largest icewine producing region in Canada, lies in a rain shadow, between the Coastal and Monashee mountain ranges. It experiences hot, dry summers (average July and August temperatures are higher than in the Napa Valley) and somewhat mild winters. The valley stretches northward 130 km from Lake Osoyoos at 49° N, at the northern tip of the antelope-brush-filled Sonoran Desert. That’s right: a desert.

Varieties
Congratulations Canada on reaching a population of one million.

Uncomfortably low temperatures are necessary for icewine harvest, but cool climate growing conditions and compatible varieties are ideal as slow ripening factors affect the rate of acidic and aromatic development—two aspects which are essential in balancing the concentrated sugar content. Prolonged over-ripening may result in a net loss of some aromatic compounds, and in the extreme cold potassium tartrate crystallization will result in a loss in acidity. At the same time there is a certain amount of concentration of acids and aromatic compounds occurring alongside the concentration of sugars. For the winemaker, striking the perfect balance is complicated.

The most common grape varieties for icewine production are white varieties: Vidal, Riesling, and Chardonnay. And Cabernet Franc is becoming increasingly popular for red icewine. Other varieties include Gewürztraminer, Merlot, Pinot Gris, Muscat Ottonel, and Gamay. Most of these are common European vinifera grapes, which in the 1970s replaced most of the labrusca and other non-vinifera varieties that had been planted in Canadian wine regions as early as 1811. However, the hybrid Vidal is quite suited to icewine production and is more extensively planted in Canada than any other country. It was developed in the 1930s by Jean Louis Vidal in Charante, France by crossing Ugni Blanc and the non-vinifera Rayon d’Or (Seibel 4986). Brought to Canada in the late 1940s by the French oenologist Adhemar de Chaunac, Vidal was first commercially employed by Ontario wine producer T.G. Bright & Company (later known as Brights Wines and now part of U.S. conglomerate Constellation Brands). Its attributes include slow and steady ripening, thick skins and high aromatics.

It is also quite winter-hardy. Winter is often associated with silence and sleep—“the only other sound’s the sweep of easy wind and downy flake”—as the weather becomes too cold for even the most corpulent of critters and pestilent of pests to cause a stir. It is a quiet that can cause a permanent silence for many plants. Death. Less poetically known as death. The very water molecules of plant cells are quieted as kinetic energy lowers, vibrational forces change, molecules rearrange and the expansion of intracellular fluid as it converts to ice bursts the cells. Cold acclimation and freezing tolerance in temperate plants involves a genetically programmed, integrated process. Upon impetus, such as photoperiodic changes, shortening day length and decreases in temperature, the plant tissues undergo alteration that improves cellular freezing tolerance, which involves protective freezing of the fluid surrounding the cells. As extracellular fluid freezes, water osmotically moves to the outside of the cell, increasing the inner solutes and concentrating the intracellular fluid, which makes it more difficult to freeze (think of how we use salt to dissolve ice). The plants can stay alive for longer exposures to colder temperatures without too many cells exploding. 

Harvest, Pressing, and Fermentation
Congratulations Canada on legalizing staplers.

The grapes are required to be naturally frozen on the vine before harvest, which usually doesn’t occur until December or January. (In British Columbia it may happen earlier, even in November.) Sometimes partial harvesting can occur in December before a later final harvest. If left hanging until February or March the fruit may be too dehydrated to be of use, or too much of it will be lost to the ground or predators. But if harvested too early, the grapes do not gain sufficient concentration and complexity. Sugars and acids and other solutes in the grape lower the freezing temperature of the juices quite a bit below that of pure water. When some of the juice freezes, the unfrozen juices are further concentrated—which further lowers the freezing temperature, just as mentioned before with intracellular concentration. Up to the point of harvest, the grape undergoes a process of successive partial freezes and thaws which continue to concentrate the sugars and other compounds and potential extracts.

When premonitions of the fateful time of harvest finally arrive, vintners painstakingly track the depths of the approaching chill, degree by degree, minute by minute. Canadian regulations require harvesting temperature to be at least -8° C/18° F. (Since 1982, German wine law requires at least -7° C/19° F). Ideal harvest temperatures are usually around -10° C to -13° C (14-9° F). If temperatures fall below -14° C (8° F) much of the tartaric acid content precipitates as potassium tartrate and too much of the water is frozen. Eyes are glued to continually updating reports from weather stations receiving data at different elevations and points in the region. To harvest at exact ideal temperatures often requires waiting until the coldest part of the day. What is darker and colder than the “darkest evening of the year?” The darkest middle of the night of the year.

Unfortunately human cells are not nearly as freeze-resistant as the vines. Harvest is usually accomplished by heavily gloved hands, although mechanical harvesters are becoming more common. It must be done effectively to reduce loss of the already greatly diminished crop, and efficiently: there is only a small window before the temperature changes, and all whilst one's vital areas and extremities are bundled to withstand the cold. The grapes must be wrangled from heavy bird netting. Often the precious brown clusters, some desiccated, some bearing perfect hardened round pellets, slip onto the ground rather than into the harvesting containers. I imagine it can be like literally losing your marbles.

Respite is far from sight once the harvest is over. Pressing, which can take many hours, must commence immediately and in cold conditions before too much thaw can occur and dilute the extract. Provincial regulations require the grapes to be pressed in a continuous process while the grapes are still frozen. Care must also be taken since friction from pressing generates heat. Pressing temperature is more important in determining final sugar content than original must density and usually ranges from -8 to -14° C (18-7° F). 

Many different types of presses can be used, but basket presses are becoming more popular. Perhaps because they give a cleaner press than horizontal presses, or perhaps because they can be used in the field and are more flexible. 

The collected juice is allowed to warm slightly when stored in tanks in order to aid settling and clarification, and centrifuging or rotary vacuum drum filters may also be used. Bentonite or other types of fining agents may be used and some winemakers choose to blend prior to fermentation.

The high concentration of sugar and other solutes causes a slow fermentation which arrests prematurely due to a combination of the high sugar concentration and accumulation of ethanol, acetic acid, various carboxylic acids, and other compounds. This produces a high residual sugar content. To achieve sufficient alcohol levels, winemakers can sometimes require two and a half times as much yeast as normal. The fermentation differs from table wine fermentation as the yeasts augment glycerol synthesis, which limits cytoplasmic water loss and provides osmotolerance (which protects them from the high sugar and solute levels), and also results in the formation of acetic acid, frequently increasing titratable acidity. Fermentation temperature, strain of yeast, and use of yeast acclimation will also have considerable effect. Inoculation with commercial strains of yeast is common as there are very few natural saccharomyces yeast cells left on the grapes after harvest.

Regulations require that the resulting juice must achieve a minimum of 32° Brix when measured after transfer to the fermentation vessel, and that the finished wine must be produced from a must that achieves a computed average of at least 35° Brix. At bottling, residual sugar levels must reach a minimum of 100 g/l (110 g/l in Nova Scotia), and actual alcohol content must be at a minimum of 7.0%. Chaptalization is not permitted, but Ontario regulations allow that sweet reserve (süssreserve) may be added if the minimum Brix level of the grapes used in the sweet reserve was 32° Brix at harvest, and it does not exceed 15% of the total volume of the wine.

Artificial methods of concentrating the sugar content of fresh grapes, grape juice, grape must or wine—including artificial refrigeration at a temperature below -4° C (25° F)—are prohibited. Additionally, tank cooling at a temperature below -4° C is prohibited during fermentation and cold stabilization prior to bottling. Unlike European regulations, which only allow addition of a total of 1 g/l citric acid in the finished wine, Canadian regulations permit several acids to a combined total of 4 g/l, as permitted by the Canada-EU Wine and Spirits Agreement. Acidification is usually unnecessary for Riesling, but may be practiced in certain vintages for other varieties.

Depending on a myriad of factors, a range of different outcomes are possible for icewine in aroma, structure, texture, and color. Alcohol content typically ranges around 10% and possible aromas span across a full range, from honeyed apple and lemon, to raisiny butter and spice, to peach and apricot, orange, litchi, mango and pineapple. It generally displays golden color of varying degrees, possibly attributable to a combination of juice concentration, caftaric acid oxidation, and the release of catechins on freezing. Notable producers include such wineries as Inniskillin, Pillitteri Estates, Reif Estates, Peller Estates, Pelee Estates, Jackson-Triggs, and Summerhill Pyramid. Dr. Karl Kaiser of Inniskillin has noted two major styles: a “fat” style with deeper color and a “slim” style, lighter in color and alcohol with more finesse and complexity of flavor and fruit profile. Some wineries also produce sparkling icewine, using the Charmat process, and some traditional method sparkling wines use icewine as dosage.

Markets and Regulations
Congratulations to Prime Minister Tim Horton on getting his double double.

The popularity of Canadian icewine grew greatly in recent years, predominantly due to the export market. In 1996, Québec-born Roger Provost, former director of international marketing for Courvoisier S.A. in France, started working for the Canadian wine conglomerate Vincor International (also now owned by the U.S. Constellation Brands), which represented Inniskillin. He made large efforts to target the Asia-Pacific market, in particular the duty-free travel retail market, and made Inniskillin’s Gold Label a highly successful luxury brand. Other wineries, such as Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara, initially forged more direct routes to the Asian market through individual regional agents. By 2012, the top ten export markets for Canadian icewine were China, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia and France. Volume exports totalled 222,716 liters valued at $15.5 million, with China accounting for $8.6 million. A telling indicator of icewine’s popularity is evidenced by the reports that in some Asian markets, at least half of the displayed products claiming to be Canadian icewine are not authentic Canadian products. Congratulations, Canada. One really cannot call something a luxury marketing success until an Asian population starts to fraudulently copy it. 

Icewines generally range anywhere from CAD $25.00 to CAD $60.00 for a 375 ml bottle, but special bottles can easily sell for far more. Sparkling icewines are priced up to CAD $80.00. The high prices reflect the high risk nature of the venture. Apart from normal viticultural dangers such as mold during rainy spells, loss due to wind damage, etc., there are many icewine-specific difficulties. The longer hang time of the grape makes it easy prey for hungry animals whose desperation increases with the cold. Starling flocks can decimate a vineyard in one fell swoop. Maintenance and harvest conditions frequently belie Robert Frost’s “easy wind and downy flake,” as voracious wind and snow conditions can leave one wondering how the migrant workers of often Southeast Asian descent cope. And speaking of Frost, sudden dips in temperature require protection methods such as wind machines or aspersion. Unusually warm winters are equally feared, increasing risk of rain-related rots and other disease. Too much dehydration rendered by causes such as Botrytis cinerea could result in significantly decreased volume—or even grapes' inability to freeze due to sugar concentration. After all is said and done, yields can sometimes be as low as 5% of the crop. About 3.5 kg of Riesling grapes or 3 kg of Vidal grapes will produce a standard 375 ml bottle of icewine, which is six to seven times as much as what would be needed for table wine.

Yet is this worth a sum as ridiculous as $30,000 for a half bottle? If you are a Saudi Arabian mogul buying a Royal DeMaria Billy Myers Series 2000 Chardonnay Icewine, apparently so. 

It is perhaps this popularity that compelled the Canadian government to introduce a federal standard for icewine early this year. Before this, the only icewine regulations were at a provincial level. This regulation unfortunately created an upset in Québec, where climates are more harshly frigid than Ontario or British Columbia and most icewine producers use what is called the “hammock” method, wherein grape clusters are clipped into hammock-like nets, left outdoors, and collected once the grapes reach sufficient concentration. Many Québecois vintners argue this method scientifically produces no difference in taste, even though it does not satisfy the new regulations’ requirement that the grapes be harvested “naturally frozen on the vine.”

Ice Cider (Cidre de Glace)
Congratulations, Jacques Poutine on becoming "president" of Canada.

Québec’s output of icewine is still only a fraction of the Niagara and Okanagan regions, but after icewine rose in popularity in the 1980s another frozen fruit fermentation beverage came to the fore: cidre de glace, or ice cider in English. The sophisticated and detailed nature of its cultivation and production deserves its own article, but it seems appropriate to make brief tribute while on the subject of winter-harvest alcohol.

The “Eastern Townships” of southeastern Québec is home to la Route des Vins, which extends from Bedford, Québec (about 10 miles north of the Vermont border) on the west, north to Farnham and east to Lac-Brome. The towns of Dunham and Frelighsburg, just east of Bedford, have claim to fame for several notable cidreries. It’s the area in which resides Christian Barthomeuf, the man credited as being the father of Québecois ice cider. After emigrating from France in the 1970s, he first focussed on winemaking before noticing the potential of the region’s apples for ice cider in 1989. By 1994 he was producing ice cider, amongst other ciders, for La Face Cachée de la Pomme, founded by François Pouliot. Pouliot’s enterprise entered full-scale commercial production in 2001, but in 2000 Barthomeuf departed to work as cider maker for a period of time for Domaine Pinnacle, owned by Charles Crawford. Since 2002, he has been producing his own line of ciders from a small orchard in Frelighsburg under the name Clos Saragnat. His expertise, coupled with his experimental and curious nature, continues to develop and evolve the Québec cider scene.

Over forty cidreries exist in Québec, but the vast majority—approximately 80%—of annual ice cider production is attributable to La Face Cachée de la Pomme and Domaine Pinnacle. In 2012, annual provincial production was estimated at over a million bottles worth about $20 million in retail. About one-third of the production is exported to Europe and Asia. As well, ice cider production is starting to become more popular in other parts of Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

The issue of freezing naturally on the plant is debated amongst ice cider makers, and two methods of production have evolved: cryoextraction and cryoconcentration. With cryoextraction, the method of production is similar to the making of icewine. Apples are left to freeze and concentrate their juices on the tree, and harvest can occur anytime from December through February, once the internal temperature of the apples reaches -8° C to -15° C (18-5° F). The frozen apples are pressed and the juice is fermented for 6-18 months. In the alternative method of cryoconcentration, the apples are harvested during the late fall and stored. When the weather becomes cold enough, the apples are pressed and their juices are left outside until much of the water content freezes, concentrating the remainder, which is then fermented. Many argue that the more intensive cryoextraction process creates a deeper, more complicated flavor, whereas others hold that the difference in taste is negligible when compared to the difference in labor, or that biochemical changes that occur in the apple in the fall make cryoconcentration preferable for certain varieties.

In December 2008, definition and specific standards for Québec ice ciders came into effect. The regulation defines “ice cider” as cider obtained from the fermentation of the juice of apples that has a pre-fermentation sugar content of not less than 30° Brix, achieved solely by natural cold, producing a finished product with a residual sugar content of at least 130 g/l and an actual alcoholic strength of 7-13% by volume. The regulations also dictate that chaptalization and the addition of alcohol or artificial flavors or colors are not allowed. Artificial cooling is only permitted at temperatures of greater than -4° C (25° F) and only for purposes of malic precipitation. Ice cider producers must cultivate the apples themselves, unless they possess a manufacturer’s license, in which case they can use a maximum of 50% of apples they do not grow themselves. Artificial infusion with carbon dioxide is permitted provided that the volume of dissolved carbon dioxide per volume of finished product is 1.5-2.5 or 3.5-5.5.

Following a natural approach has become common practice amongst certain boutique cidreries. Some choose to use only organic apples, to refrain from filtering or from warming or chilling the liquid in the tanks, and to abstain from the addition of commercial yeasts, sulfur, or chemical additives. As well, it is not unusual for some cider-makers to allow the cider to remain in the tanks on its lees for a period of time or to age the cider in oak casks.

Blends are more common than single-variety ciders, perhaps because blending facilitates attaining a balanced product as different varieties will reach different sugar, tartness, and tannin levels. In Québec, the majority of apples used are eating apples like McIntosh or its offspring Empire, unlike in Europe where the trend can be to use specific cider varieties such as Bulmer’s Norman, Tremlett’s Bitter, and Stembridge Cluster. Other varieties that can be included range from regional eating cultivars, such as the disease-resistant Liberty, Freedom, and Trent, to heirloom varieties such as Calville Blanc, Reinettes, Ashmead’s Kernel, and Esopus Spitzenburg. Using rare, unidentified wild varieties discovered by walking out into the middle of wooded areas in winter time, is a habit of Barthomeuf’s. It can take from 50 to more than 100 apples to produce a single 375 ml bottle of ice cider (and accordingly, it is priced similarly to icewine at CAD $20 to $60 a bottle).

Above: Christian Barthomeuf and top Canadian Sommelier Véronique Rivest at SOIF bar-à-vin

Conclusion
Congratulations Canada on getting 800 miles of paved road.

In my opinion, the only humans who don’t have a love-hate relationship with snow are the ones who don’t live where there is snow. Winter blows in and you wonder why you are living this far north. You step outside, and just breathing out causes icicles to form on body parts, the bargaining chip of “winter sports” no longer placates, and you start irrationally cursing your indifferent ancestors who probably knew the laws of equatorial physics, but instead of traveling further south, simply shrugged their snow-covered shoulders, politely grinned, took it and toqued it, bore it and bearded it, just as they complacently yet stubbornly obtained independence from the empire through painstaking patience.

But that is the true beauty of winter. It’s a beauty that is a hard-earned exercise in understanding and patience, much like the beauty of wine. The darkness and the quiet, an enveloping whiteness, the pristine untouched purity that comes from being the only warm-blooded mammal insane yet prepared enough to brave the snow and ice. It’s something one should be careful not to oversimplify, whether by reducing it to a mere status symbol or airport luxury gift item, by carelessness or dilution in processing, or by blindly tagging it to general climate stereotypes or a superficial concept of winter beauty. Icewine/cider making requires great care, time, and effort, both mental and physical, in using the natural elements of a region to create a balanced and integrated work of art. There are many times the winter is too much for some and shortcuts can create examples of both icewine and ice cider that are far less than, let us say, exemplary. But there will also be hard-earned cuvées that exhibit fresh crispness balanced with smooth concentrated flavor that exemplifies the true taste of winter. The embodiment of the trudge. The dedication and toil in striving for a loftier objective, in arriving at true perfection. To desire the taste of mysterious winter fruit, “lovely, dark, and deep,” but to realize there are miles to go before one sleeps. And miles to go before one sleeps.

With bannock bread and caribou eggs, the True North big and cold.
Oh Canada, we are on top. We're close to the North Pole.
Fermez la bouche. Mangez poutine. 
Canada! A lovely winter dream.
Oh Canada, La La La La, La, Laaa.

-San Franciscans sing Canada’s "national anthem" with Rick Mercer on Talking to Americans, 2001

**Icewine grapes and press photos courtesy of Wine Country Ontario