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International News
product of “cold”. The “open air freezing” makes it In 1972 German immigrant Walter Hainle was
unique. And traditional. growing grapes in the Okanagan Valley in British
Colombia. As it had in 19th century Germany,
The tradition began in the late 18th or early 19th Winter created Canada’s first ice wine. An unex-
century. The origin of ice wine cannot be precisely pected early frost left Hainle with frozen grapes.
documented, but it is widely believed that Germans He used them to make wine. The result was just 40
discovered it when grapes unexpectedly froze due liters of wine which Hainle didn’t even bother to
to surprise early frosts. The vintners did what they sell until 1978. But the seed had been planted for a
could to save their harvests. They made wine from Canadian ice wine industry.
the frozen grapes. From that first attempt to avoid
the loss of a crop through most of the 20th century, In 1983, four Ontario wineries intentionally left
ice wine harvests were very rare. Only six vintages grapes on the vine to make use of Canada’s cold
are recorded in the 19th century. It appears that ice winter. Inniskillan, and Ewald Reif lost their entire
wine was just a fortunate result of occasional unusu- crop to birds. Hillebrand, and Pelee Island man-
al weather- surprise early frosts. No one thought to aged a tiny harvest. The next year Karl Kaiser of
make ice wine intentionally. Inniskillan, used nets to protect his vines from the
birds. He produced Canada’s first commercially
But in 1961, an advance in technology made pro- significant ice wine which was labeled with the
duction of ice wine practical. The invention was a German term Eiswein.
pneumatic press. It made pressing rock-hard frozen
grapes much easier. That year, a number of German As the popularity of ice wine grew, its production
ice wines were produced. Their surprising popular- was taken up all over Canada, including Quebec.
ity began a wave of growth that eventually spread Some Quebec vintners used a technique to protect
across the Atlantic. their vines from the exceptional cold and snow fall
877-892-5332 The Grapevine • July - August 2015 Page 51
