This weekend marked the start of the 21st annual Ice Wine Festival across Ontario’s Niagara region. The festival comes after a winter that began with unseasonably warm temperatures.
Niagara Grape and Wine Festival Executive Director Kimberly Hundertmark said the effect of the warm temperatures on a harvest technique that relies on sub-freezing temperatures was less than what some might expect.
“Obviously there were some ‘nervous myrtles’ out there, concerned with the fact that the grapes could eventually start to rot,” said Hundertmark. “But because we didn’t have a lot of rain with that warm weather, we were protected from those elements.”
While the date of the festival remains fairly static from year to year, the exact date of ice wine harvesting changes. Traditionally, the harvest takes place in January through March.
This year, growers were able to conduct the majority of the harvest in the first week of January, when temperatures dropped to -8° Celsius and below for a few consecutive days.
Hundertmark explained a bit of the process.
“The grapes really do turn into little ice frozen raisins. At that point is when you’re going to harvest those grapes. And there’s also the natural sugars that are in the grapes, they’re testing those along the way too to see if those are at the optimum level for harvest.”
The national weather service is forecasting generally above-average temperatures for the remainder of the winter, along with the possibility of some warm-ups. Hundertmark said the forecast is not a major concern for growers and any grapes that may still remain on their vines.
“That’s the beauty, but it’s also the curse of being reliant on the weather.” Said Hundertmark. “Those grapes have already dehydrated they’re just sitting on the vine in a state where rot is the worst thing we can hope for. But unless we get a lot of rain, we’re going to be protected from that.”
The Niagara Ice Wine Festival runs through the last weekend in January.
