Making the Nectar of the Gods

Behind the scenes with local ice wine makers

By Greg Tasker | Jan. 6, 2024

In just a matter of weeks, if Mother Nature cooperates, clusters of frozen Riesling and other selected grapes clinging to barren, gnarly vines will be harvested, perhaps in the dark of night or in the flurry of snow.

There’s much more work ahead—in frigid conditions as well—but the end result months later will be a unique style of wine not found everywhere: ice wine.

A Rare Treat

Ice wine traces its roots to Germany, where it’s known as eiswein and originated in the late 18th century. For a region to produce ice wine, the climate has to be warm enough for grapes to accumulate sugar and to ripen and cold enough for them to freeze.

Canada is the world’s biggest producer of ice wine, while other regions include New York’s Finger Lakes and other Great Lakes states. Grapes commonly used for ice wine include Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Gewurztraminer, Gruner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc, and Vidal Blanc.

Ice wine is made by a handful of wineries in northern Michigan, one of the few wine regions in the world with the right weather conditions to produce the dessert-style wine popular among tasting room customers. It’s often referred to as the “Nectar of the Gods” because of its light gold color and rich sweetness.

“I think part of the appeal of ice wine is that it is rare,” says Lee Lutes, head winemaker at Black Star Farms, which maintains vineyards and tasting rooms on both Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas. “The Midwest palate is sweet—that’s part of the appeal. But ice wine is a scarce commodity; you can’t make it everywhere. They don’t make it in California—or, if they do, they’re doing it artificially.”

A Risky Business

No matter the region or the grape, producing ice wine is not for the faint of heart (or thin of skin).

Even in the fall harvest, Michigan wineries endure rain, sleet, and snow but just imagine what’s in store during a winter harvest. Vintners and their crews share stories of hand-picking frozen grapes in the frigid wee hours of the morning, enduring howling winds, falling temperatures, knee-deep snow, and even the occasional blizzard.

There are, of course, strict rules about the harvesting, handling, and labeling of ice wine. Those regulations require the grapes to be harvested frozen naturally on the vine while the air temperature is about 18 degrees Fahrenheit. The grapes must remain at this temperature (or below) for at least 24 to 48 hours before being picked. Typically, the grapes are picked during a very short window and pressed immediately.

Leaving these grapes on the vine well into late fall or early winter allows for more sugar concentration. When temperatures fall below a certain level, the water in the grapes freeze, but not the sugar. Pressing them immediately, before they thaw, retains the water but releases small amounts of concentrated, sweet juice.

The lower yields of juice, as well as the more labor-intensive process, means higher prices and smaller bottles (typically 375-ml bottles) for ice wine.

But while cold temperatures are required to freeze the grapes, vintners can’t leave the grapes on vines too long. The grapes can freeze and become as hard as marbles, meaning no juice can be extracted. There is also the risk of loss—leaving the grapes on the vine because the desired temperatures never occurred.

There are other risks as well. The longer the grapes hang, the more the sugar is concentrated, attracting the attention of deer, squirrels, birds, raccoons, and other animals. Many winemakers cover the vines in nets as they await the final harvest of the season. The grapes also are subject to the damaging quirks of Mother Nature—hail, wind, or even warmer temperatures.

A Drink to Celebrate

And then there’s the wine making process, which is another shift from the norm. Pressing frozen grapes requires special equipment—a high pressure press, Lutes says. The high sugar levels require special strains of yeast and a slower-than-normal fermentation.

The fermentation can take months, in comparison to days or weeks for other wines. Most wineries don’t put the latest ice wine on the shelves until the past vintage is sold out.

Black Star Farms began producing ice wine around the time of the winery’s founding more than 25 years ago, but the winery has not been able to make ice wine every year, as sometimes things “don’t line up well enough,” Lutes says. The last ice wine harvest—in January 2022—was the first since 2013. Black Star’s 2021 A Capella Ice Wine ($98), made from Riesling, is on the shelves in the winery’s tasting rooms but is not expected to last much longer.

Chateau Chantal has had better luck and is one of Michigan’s oldest ice wine producers. The Old Mission Peninsula winery has been making ice wine out of Riesling nearly since opening its doors 30 years ago. More recently, the family-owned winery has been making ice wine out of Cabernet Franc as well.

“We’ve had a really good reaction to Cabernet Franc,” says Kyle Brownley, Chateau Chantal’s director of marketing who has regularly joined the crew during the ice wine harvest to take photographs. “The color is very pretty—a light red. It has a different flavor profile than you’d expect from ice wine.

“Many ice wines have the same flavor profile because they’re made out of Riesling. When you bring in a red varietal, it adds something extra. We get berry fruit flavors versus honey flavors from Riesling,” he adds.

Chateau Chantal has several ice wines available now—Ice Wine Estate ($90), Ice Wine Estate Cab Franc ($90), and Vidal Ice ($45). The winery celebrates the unique and popular libation every January with an Ice Wine Harvest Festival, when visitors can taste the ice wine vintages available in the tasting room and peek behind the curtain on the art of winemaking.

“The Ice Wine Festival is a great opportunity to see a winery in the winter,” Brownley says. “You can see the vineyard where we harvested the grapes for ice wine and tour the cellar where we focus on the process of making ice wine.”

This year’s Ice Wine Harvest Festival will be held Saturday, Jan. 27, from 11am to 5pm. For more information, visit chateauchantal.com.