Making icewine in Germany is hard work in freezing temperatures, which results in only a few drops of wine. But it is worth it, and that is the reason for the happy faces when almost all 13 German wine regions had ideal conditions for picking frozen grapes the week before Christmas. Because these conditions don’t happen every year.
The grapes must be totally frozen, which means a temperature of at least 7 degrees C below zero for several hours. Otherwise, the producer will just lose the grapes. But when it happens, the grapes are harvested, quite overripe at this point, and pressed while still frozen. They often pick early in the morning.
The result is a sweet wine with magnificent freshness. Expensive to buy? Not if you consider that the harvest yield is between 300 and 500 litres per hectare.
Read more: DeutscheWeine.
