Icewine Harvest Yields Down, Quality Up

Published December 29, 2011
Press release
St.Catharines, Ontario

The Icewine harvest has officially begun in Niagara this morning as picking began at Henry of Pelham Family Estate winery as temperatures dropped below -8 Celsius, the audited temperature for VQA rules. Riesling Icewine is being picked first as the skins are very thin and the grapes need to come off the vine as soon as possible. Nets are used to cover the grapes and protect them from the birds, deer and turkeys as the extremely sweet and ripe grapes are the only food source available. “With the unusually warm winter weather our yield is down at least 35%. The good news is the grapes are more concentrated and the juice is very opulent. We picked around 40 tonnes.” Said Matthew Speck, VP Viticulture. “We started picking at 1:30am finishing around 7am and will press the completely frozen grapes for most of the day today”. Wine grapes are 85% water. When they naturally freeze on the vine the sweet nectar is pressed to produce this rare and delisious wine.

“This weather came up quickly as it has been a warm winter so far.” Says Paul Speck President of the family owned winery in Niagara. “We have called off the harvest a couple of times as temperatures got close to -8 but then warmed up. Volumes are down and demand is up. Prices will likely remain the same but there will be less available”

Henry of Pelham is an independent family owned winery who have made award winning Icewine since 1989. Having won awards all over the world their Icewine is sold throughout Canada and around the world. “Our largest market outside of Canada is China followed by Japan and the U.S. “said Paul Speck. “While the difficult economy remains in some markets we have seen Icewine sales increase particularly in Canada and China. I think because it is so rare and Niagara is considered the best in the world we will see our sales continue to gain in the Global markets.” This vintage will be available in wine stores worldwide in the fall of 2012. The Icewines available now herald from the 2010 vintage. Icewine is enjoyed as a dessert or in cocktails such as Icewine cosmopolitans. It is enjoyed on release but can age for well over 10 years. For more information call Paul Speck at 905-684-8423 ex. 222 or ptspeck@henryofpelham.com follow us on twitter @speckbros.