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Why it tastes like this

Why does Canadian Icewine taste like that?

Intensely sweet wine from grapes picked and pressed while naturally frozen on the vine.

What this page is and is not

These are the contributors WineHQ can name for Canadian Icewine as a category. Every one is a tendency, a convention or a mechanism, and each carries a label saying which. None of it describes how a particular producer made a particular bottle — real practice varies enormously, and a causal account that read as a recipe would be false for a great many of the wines it covers.

The grape

What does the variety bring before anyone does anything to it?

Vidal

Tendency

Characteristically very low tannin, medium-plus acidity and medium-full body. Commonly associated with peach, apricot, pineapple, honey.

Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.

Riesling

Tendency

Characteristically very low tannin, high acidity and light-medium body. Commonly associated with lime, green apple, white peach, apricot.

Not claiming: That every wine from this variety shows these characteristics. This is the range across the category, and site and winemaking move wines within and beyond it.

Place and climate

What did the growing season do to the fruit?

Cooler growing-season temperatures are associated with slower sugar accumulation and with higher retained acidity, because malic acid is respired more slowly at lower temperatures — particularly at night.

Varies: Season length matters as much as temperature. A long cool season can ripen fruit fully while retaining acidity; a short one may not ripen it at all.

Not claiming: That climate puts flavours into grapes. Climate acts on the vine’s physiology, and the picking decision then determines what reaches the bottle.

A wide day–night temperature range is associated with better acid retention, because cool nights slow the respiration that consumes malic acid while warm days continue to ripen the fruit.

Not claiming: That altitude or continentality guarantees high acidity. Both widen diurnal range on average and neither determines the outcome.

Winemaking

What decisions were taken between the vineyard and the bottle?

Stopping fermentation early to leave natural sugar in the wine.

Not claiming: That every producer of this style uses this method, or that using it is required.

Ice wine

Convention

Pressing grapes while frozen, so the ice stays behind and only concentrated juice comes out.

Not claiming: That every producer of this style uses this method, or that using it is required.

Age

What changes after the wine is bottled?

Riesling icewine from Niagara can develop for two decades or more, the acidity holding the sweetness in balance. Vidal icewine is generally at its best within a decade.

Not claiming: That a wine of this style will develop these characters. Ageing potential varies by producer, vintage and storage, and most wine is better young.

Follow it up

Style

Canadian Icewine

The taste profile, food matches, serving guidance and what to try next.

Science

Why wine is like this

The mechanisms behind each contributor above, explained at the scope they have been established.

Myths

What people get wrong

Several of the explanations usually given for wines like this do not survive checking.

Sources

Sources consulted