MADISON TWP., Ohio — Some of us may be dreading stepping outside during the recent cold snap, but it was a welcome shift in the weather for Northeast Ohio’s wine country. A deep freeze created ideal conditions for the Grand River Valley to harvest its grapes for ice wine.
A call on social media for volunteers helped supplement the teams of vineyard workers picking grapes on Monday. Some started as early as 5 a.m. using headlamps and utility vehicles to gather the frozen fruit from the vine.
“I’ve always wanted to do this. I’ve heard that people come out in this freezing weather and do it and I just thought it’d be a fun challenge to do,” said volunteer Scott Rooney, who lives nearby.
Temperatures dipped into the single digits Monday morning and stayed in the teens throughout the day.
“It’s really cold at the beginning, but once you get picking it’s not so bad. You warm up,” Rooney said.
The frigid conditions were welcomed by wine producers who worried a warm start to the winter could jeopardize the ice wine season.
“Basically, the grape has to be left on the vine, and they have to be frozen at 17 degrees Fahrenheit or below. And they have to remain that way for a couple of hours,” explained Mike Koller, the head winemaker at Debonne Vineyards. “Every year’s a little bit different. This year, we have pretty much perfect conditions.”
True ice wine, known for its sweet, highly concentrated taste, requires the grapes to age and freeze on the vine.
“Ice wine, we often think of something that’s produced in the vineyard, rather than in the wine cellar through years of aging in a barrel,” explained Gene Sigel, the vineyard manager for The Valley Wine Group. “What ages ice wine is the heating and cooling that happens until we reach that temperature in the teens.”
Because of a warm December, this year’s harvest was one of the latest for the Grand River Valley. But the delay brings its own benefits to the 2024 vintage.
“The trade-off in a year like this where we had to wait until January is the grapes have been through a lot of aging, warming and cooling, warming and cooling, so it’s added a lot of complexity in the flavors,” Sigel said. “There’s a lot of intensity of tangerine and citrus and lemon and lime mixed together with a dosage of sweetness and also acidity.”
The Grand River Valley will celebrate its favorite winter beverage in March during the Ice Wine Festival. It’s become a way to attract tourists to the wine-growing region during a slower time of year.
“The inception of the Ice Wine Festival was to get people out to the wineries to kind of kickstart the year,” Koller said. “So we’re hoping that’s what it does this year as well.”
This year, seven different wineries will feature ice wine and food pairings throughout the month of March. The stops will also include vendors and entertainment on Saturdays.
You can find more details about the 2024 Grand River Valley Ice Wine Festival by clicking here.
