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One of Nova Scotia’s most valuable commodities is also a product that cannot be controlled. It is an agricultural product that is completely under the control of Mother Nature. It cannot be duplicated except in laboratories conditions. I’m speaking of ice wine.
Ice wine goes back to the days of Roman Empire when grapes were beset by unusually-early frost. What happened to grapes was that, unlike regular wines, the fermentation does not occur until after they are frozen. The fruit at this stage is sweet and maintains the sweetness afterward. The wines became popular in Europe in the early 1800′s when the freak freezing temperatures was thought to have ruined the grapes. For this reason they were left out on the vine for the animals until an experiment proved that they were palatable and actually great tasting.
Canada’s first ice wines were produced in 1972 in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia but gained acceptance a decade later when they began bottling them in the Niagara region of Ontario.
The ice wine industry has also taken off in Nova Scotia. Last week was a perfect temperature for ice wines, -10 degrees Celsius, and Werner Vineyards in the Annapolis Valley harvested 14 tonnes of frozen Ortega grapes. The owner, Hans Christian Jost of Jost Wineries, is ready to produce 2,400 litres of the ice wine. This will be on the market in mid-summer 2009.
The reason Nova Scotia ice wines are becoming popular, along with those of other Canadian vineyards, is that the climate in Europe has warmed in the past few years allowing for fewer ice wine harvests. However, the temperature has to be just right. If it is too cold then the grapes are too hard to press. A regular wine press will literally break. If the freeze happens to late the grapes may rot on the vine.
fermentation, ice wine, ice wines, icewine, inniskillin ice wine, jost, okanagan valley, sweet wine 
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