Early grape harvest? Sweet!
Cold temperatures mark start of icewine season
The cold snap has been sweet for at least two area wineries where crews braved plunging temperatures to harvest sugary icewine grapes.
"We were just trying to see what our threshold was, how long we could do it," Bruno Friesen, a Pelee Island Winery vineyard manager, said Monday.
A crew of about half a dozen worked for about 10 hours Sunday evening as temperatures fell to - 16 C, calling it a night from the bone-chilling island cold with 50 km/h winds around midnight.
They picked grapes and the pressing began to create the latest sweet premium vintage that will arrive on store shelves within months.
Friesen believes the Kingsville-based winery is among the first in the province to start the winter icewine harvest, which can take as long as two months to finish, depending on the thermometer.
On the mainland, near Colchester, Bernie Gorski, winemaker-owner of Colchester Ridge Estate Winery, finished the first harvest of icewine grapes from his own vineyards within three hours Monday. Gorski said he and 11 volunteers who are fans of wines picked a tonne of Gewurztraminer grapes from about one-quarter of an acre.
He expects to bottle and sell the icewine in time for winery visitors next summer.
"It was a perfect temperature," Gorski said of the work, adding the thermometer reached - 12 Monday but felt more like - 20.
"We just layer up," he said of the winterized workwear clothing for harvest.
Gorski especially likes his winery's Gewurztraminer with its tropical and floral qualities, even though it's a white wine grape not common for icewines.
On Pelee Island, the winery harvests about 15 acres for Vidal and Cabernet Franc icewines. Conditions for wine quality are best when temperatures slide below - 8, Friesen said.
"We only did a stab at it," Friesen said of Sunday's effort to simply start the harvest.
Asked how it went, Friesen said, "fantastic." As for the frigid conditions, "that was something else."
The work done mainly by hand will continue in sections, weather permitting.
Asked how long they may work this week or in weeks to come, Friesen said, "As long as it stays cold, or we get done. Whichever comes first."
The Weather Network says temperatures are expected to warm up to a relatively balmy - 5 starting today, and hover around the freezing mark through Sunday.
One of the first in Ontario to make icewines, Pelee Island Winery started about 25 years ago.
The aim is not so much to pick grapes or make juice, but focus on producing the best, premium vintage, Friesen said.
"We sell wine," said Friesen. "So, we have to take our time to do it and do it right."
OUT IN THE COLD
Monday's icy cold weather was perfect for the outdoor activities at Colchester Ridge Estate Winery, where the company's first-ever ice wine grape harvest was underway.
Because of a very late fall harvest of the regular wine grapes, owner Bernie Gorski said two rows of Gewurztraminer grapes -- less than a third of an acre -- were left on the vine in hopes of a frozen winter harvest. The gamble paid off when the start of about a tonne of frozen grapes was being collected Monday.
That total should translate into about 400 litres of sweet "very floral" ice wine, which Gorski expects to have bottled and available for sale by June.