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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Canada

Ice wine (Eiswein, icewine)Eiswein

Ice wine is a sweet wine made from grapes left to freeze on the vine. The grapes are picked and pressed while frozen, so only a small amount of very sugary juice runs out. That juice ferments slowly for weeks or months and stops while the wine is still very sweet. Made in 5 steps over 31 days. The longest step, ferment slowly, takes at least 30 days (Kolotylo V. and Gniewosz M. 2026) and runs at 15–17 °C (Kolotylo V. and Gniewosz M. 2026). Saccharomyces cerevisiae and S. bayanus does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 30 daysReported[kolotylo2026][tian2026]Ferment slowly
Temperature15–17 °CReported[kolotylo2026]Ferment slowly
AciditypH 4Measured[tian2026]Press the grapes while still frozen

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceNo fixed recipe. The rules fix the freezing, the juice sugar and the finished alcohol, not the amounts. One Polish vintage pressed 4900 kg of frozen grapes into about 1000 L of wine.
Grapes frozen on the vine · Artificial freezing is not allowed under the OIV definition[kolotylo2026]
Wine yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) · Usually selected strains of S. cerevisiae or S. bayanus; spontaneous fermentation is also allowed in China[kolotylo2026]
50 mg/LSulphur dioxide · As added to the juice in one Vidal trial[tian2026]
Starterdefined-culture (wine yeast)

Total time across the recorded steps: 31 days

Start
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up to -7 °C

What changes: Starting material: grapes frozen hard on the vine

Step 1 of 5
Leave the grapes to freeze on the vine
Time
Not documented
Temperature
up to -7 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

German law requires frozen grapes at harvest and pressing but sets no temperature; the OIV -7 °C is the working reference there. Output: frozen grape clusters.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
berries frozen hard
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

The method is a white wine, but the grapes freeze on the vine first. Picking and pressing frozen grapes leaves the water behind as ice, so the juice holds 35 °Brix or more in Canada. Fermentation is slow and stops early, leaving the wine very sweet. Unlike noble-rot wine, the sugar is concentrated by frost, not by mould.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Eiswein (Germany)Its own Prädikat category since 1982; must weight as for Beerenauslese in the region, 110–128 °Oechsle; mostly Riesling.
  • Eiswein (Austria)At least 25 °KMW.
  • Vin de Glace (Luxembourg)Pinot blanc, Pinot gris or Riesling frozen at -7 °C or colder; at least 120 °Oechsle.
  • Red icewine (Canada)Made from Cabernet Franc and some Cabernet Sauvignon.
  • Ice cider (cidre de glace, Quebec)Frozen apples or apple juice instead of grapes.

Safety

Ice wine is made and kept like other sweet wines. Sulphur dioxide, often potassium sorbate and sterile filtering keep the sugar from refermenting in the bottle.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The first well documented ice wine harvest was in 1830 at Dromersheim near Bingen, in Rheinhessen. Some accounts place one near Würzburg in 1794. Canada began in the late 1980s and became the largest producer.

  1. [kolotylo2026] Kolotylo V. and Gniewosz M. 2026, Ice wines under the shadow of global warming - climatic threats, production mechanisms and adaptation strategies, Foods 15(19):3422paper
  2. [tian2026] Tian G., Zhang W., Zhu D. et al. 2026, Enological potential and application of Metschnikowia pulcherrima in Vidal blanc icewine fermentation, Frontiers in Microbiology doi:10.3389/fmicb.2026.1757951paper
  3. [WP:Ice wine] Wikipedia, Ice wine (outline only)wiki