Page 54 - Grapevine July-August 2015

International News

of their region. The practice is a form of “hilling”. and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vintners
To protect the vines from the severe cold and get Association it “protects genuine ice wine producers
them through the winter, a mound of earth is piled from those using unacceptable standards and fraud-
around the plant’s base. The hills are about 20 inch- ulent practices in both domestic and growing export
es high. markets.”

Hilling begins in late fall. To enable hilling to The problem is, “what about Quebec?”

take place without harming grapes, the grapes are

cut from the vine and placed in nets hanging direct- Some vintners believe traditional ice wine can

ly above the plants. There they remain as late as be made in Quebec. John Antony of Chapelle Ste

December or January until enough frost days occur Agnes wines admits, “the weather does create addi-

to produce the desired sugar levels in the grapes. tional risks. But it can be done. We’ve been doing it

From that point forward, production can return to for years.”

the traditional

methods. But in But some in

some people’s “Only wine that is made exclusively Quebec feel they
minds, the tradi-
tion has already from grapes naturally frozen on the vine is are unfairly being
victimized for

been broken. This ‘icewine’, ‘ice wine’ or ‘ice-wine’.” reasons other
is the heart of the Canada Agricultural Products Act than the quality
dispute. of their wines.

Charles-Henri de

People who feel “If Quebec winemakers were forced to keep Coussergues of
that the purity the grape bunches on the vines until harvest, Orpailleur is one
of the process, of them. Charles-
“the tradition” is Henri claims there

important want it they could damage or kill their vines.” is no difference in
to be preserved. winesofcanada.com the quality of the
Other people “freeze on-the-

with more com- vine” or “off-

mercial concerns the-vine” wines.

worry that “Canadian Ice Wine” will be seen not to He explained, “once there is frost, the vine only

conform with international standards that call for serves as support” for the grapes. “When there are

“grapes that freeze on the vine”. Still others worry no leaves, there is no photosynthesis.” According

that if Canadian producers stray from tradition, to this explanation, nothing significant is happening

there will be no argument to discourage others like to the grapes on the vine that doesn’t happen to the

the Chinese from making their own inferior “ice grapes in the nets.

wine” where conditions don’t permit traditional pro-

duction. These people want the “frozen-on-the-vine” Yvon Quirion, vice-president of l’Associaton des

definition enforced. Vignerons du Quebec agrees. He believes the argu-

ment agains the Quebec wines is about pushing

To protect the traditional production of ice wine, them out of the market. By forcing the Quebec vint-

the Canadian Government passed the Canada ners to abandon the only technique that they believe

Agricultural Products Act in 2014. The act contains will succeed, they will effectively put them out of

a crucial definition of ice wine: “Only wine that the ice wine business. As de Coussergues has said,

is made exclusively from grapes naturally frozen if “we can’t use this method, we simply can’t make

on the vine is “icewine”, “ice wine” or “ice-wine.” ice wine any longer.”

Most Canadian vintners were very happy with the

act because according to Dan Paszkowski, President To protect the Quebec vintners, the Quebec gov-

Page 52 The Grapevine • July - August 2015 877-892-5332