Ice, Icewine, Amaryllis and Lilies

Niagara Falls...in the middle of January.  We were there - and survived the bitter cold.  Just days before our arrival, it was so cold, the falls were frozen solid!  What you're seeing is the "thaw".  The falls in Winter are spectacular!  The turquoise green colour of the fiercely powerful water, is stunning against the ice and snow.  Further away from Horseshoe Falls, towards American Falls, the water appears dark jade green, and then, slate grey.  

I've been to Niagara Falls, and nearby Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL, or as the locals pronounce it, Nottle), in the hot, humid Summer, when vividly coloured flowers cascade from the hanging baskets of lamp posts, like grand floral waterfalls.  Niagara-on-the-Lake is known as "the prettiest small town in Canada".  Winston Churchill famously said, that the drive along the Niagara River, "is the prettiest Sunday drive in the world".  

When we were exploring the region a few days ago, many of Niagara Falls' tourist businesses were closed for the Winter, and parts of NOTL looked like a ghost town (it is also known as the most haunted town in Canada).  The trees along the hillside overlooking the falls were covered in ice!  It was a breathtaking, and ghostly sight!    

Niagara is world famous for another ice:  Icewine.  Hot Summers and cold Winters are ideal for producing gold medal winning, "liquid gold".  Icewine is produced from grapes which have been left on the vine after the Fall harvest, and handpicked only when temperatures drop below freezing, to -8 Celsius (17.6 F) or less.  Harvesting is done at night, when the temperatures are least likely to climb.  The grapes are immediately pressed while still frozen, to extract droplets of thick, golden yellow liquid.  By leaving them on the vine, the sugar in the grapes becomes concentrated (these grape vines have already been harvested). 

Icewine has a sweet, rich, intense flavour, and is very smooth.  The word, "luxurious" is often used to describe the experience.  Icewine is not cloyingly sweet, because the acidity balances the flavour.  Depending on the grape, the flavour may have notes of cherry, strawberry and rhubarb, or, lychee, papaya and pineapple:  Summer on your lips!

Riesling and Vidal Blanc grapes are the most common grapes used in making Icewine.  Gewurztraminer, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay are also very popular.  It takes about 3.5kg (7.7 pounds) of Riesling grapes to make one 375ml (12.7 oz) bottle of Icewine.

Not only is Icewine production labour intensive, it is also risky.  Wineries will harvest grapes for wine, and leave the remaining grapes for Icewine, knowing that they may lose some, or all of these grapes to birds, hail, or high winds.  In Germany, Austria, and the Canadian Westcoast, temperatures do not always drop far enough below freezing to produce Icewine, making it an unpredictable enterprise.

In Ontario and BC, only authentic Icewine carries the VQA (Vintner's Quality Alliance) certification.  To be true Icewine, 100 percent of the grapes in the Icewine, must be grown within a specific geographic boundary (appellation); naturally frozen on the vine; harvested at -8C or below; kept frozen for immediate pressing within the same appellation; and the sweetness level must be no less than 35 degrees Brix.  A low Brix level results in the grapes being sold as, "special select late harvest".  The Icewine must be bottled within Canada, and labelled with the appellation and Brix.

Adding sugar to the wine is strictly forbidden.  Using imported grapes is forbidden.  Artificially freezing grapes is forbidden.  Years ago, during a warm Winter, a BC grower transported grapes to a higher mountain level so that they would freeze - that too, is forbidden.  Icewine made with added sugar, may as well be tossed over the falls in a barrel!

Year after year, Canadian vintners receive gold medals for Icewine, beginning in 1991, when Inniskillin Wines entered its 1989 Vidal Icewine at Vinexpo in Bordeaux, France, and won the Grand Prix d'Honneur.       

  

Our happy adventure in the land of Icewine was a memorable one...reminds me of the joke about an Englishman, a Russian and an Italian who walk into a bar, and order a bottle from NOTL...

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.