Drink more Ice Wine (Eiswein) before you die!
Why? Because it is the most concentrated, intensely sweet, pure wine out there— like delicious alcoholic grape juice. But it is also really, really hard to make, so we need to drink more of it so that producers keep making it.
Ten Second Summary
- What it is: A luscious sweet wine made from grapes harvested while naturally frozen on the vine.
- Tastes like: Apricot, peach, pineapple, candied citrus, honey, tropical fruit, and pure, vivid grape sweetness balanced by bright acidity.
- Why it matters: Ice Wine is one of the most dramatic and risky ways to make wine—and one of the most delicious.
- Buying shortcut: Canada is the modern Icewine powerhouse, while Germany and Austria are the historic heartlands of Eiswein.
- Best with: Blue cheese, fruit desserts, foie gras, or simply on its own as a decadent dessert in a glass.
- When to drink: Most are at their most thrilling when young, fresh, and bursting with fruit, though the best can age well.
Not what you’re looking for? Explore more best sweet wines.
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Frozen grapes on the vine destined for Ice Wine production | © istockphoto.com / MaxBaumann |
What’s on this page
- 1. Why Ice Wine is bucket list worthy
- 2. How Ice Wine is made
- 3. Why Ice Wine is so expensive
- 4. Germany and Austria: the old home of Eiswein
- 5. Canada: the modern Icewine powerhouse
- 6. What grapes are used for Ice Wine?
- 7. Drink it young—or not?
- 8. Five Ice Wine producers to look out for
- 9. Quick FAQ
1. Why Ice Wine is bucket list worthy
Ice Wine isn’t something you can just make anywhere. It takes extreme conditions, good fortune, and nerves of steel. Hence, you won’t see it crowding supermarket shelves. This is a special wine made in small quantities in only a few places on earth.
Intensely sweet and concentrated, Ice Wine is a deliciously pure wine made from grapes harvested while they are frozen on the vine. Done well, it is one of the most thrilling sweet wines in the world: vivid, concentrated, and opulent, yet kept alive by a streak of acidity that stops it from becoming cloying.
It is one of those wines that feels improbable even as you drink it. How can something so sweet also taste so fresh? That is precisely the charm.
2. How Ice Wine is made
Ice Wine is made from grapes left hanging on the vine into the depths of winter. The grapes are harvested only once they are naturally frozen. They are then pressed quickly while still frozen, so that much of the water remains behind as ice in the press.
What comes out is not much juice, but what does emerge is fantastically concentrated: a thick, golden syrup of grape sugar, acidity, and flavour. That is why real Ice Wine tastes so vivid and so pure. It is concentration achieved not by clever tricks in the winery but by weather, patience, and risk.
In Ontario, strict VQA rules require Icewine grapes to be naturally frozen on the vine and harvested and pressed while the temperature remains at or below -8°C. That is part of what makes the style so exacting—and so authentic.
3. Why Ice Wine is so expensive
Obviously, pressing frozen grapes yields a very small quantity of juice, so there is no cheap Ice Wine. Leaving grapes on the vine long enough for temperatures to drop below freezing is also a risky business, so bottle prices need to be high to make the endeavour worthwhile to the vigneron.
Birds, rot, weather, and the simple possibility that the freeze will not arrive in time all hang over the crop. Then, when the moment finally comes, growers often have to harvest in the dead of night or the early hours of the morning in brutal conditions. It is farming on a knife edge.
In other words, Ice Wine is expensive for the best possible reason: it is genuinely hard to make.
4. Germany and Austria: the old home of Eiswein
To state the obvious, you need a predictably cold climate to even think about making this sort of wine. Germany and Austria both excel in the style, which is why it is so often called Eiswein—German for Ice Wine.
Eiswein is said to have been discovered by accident in Germany in 1794, when growers pressed grapes that had frozen unexpectedly on the vine rather than lose the crop altogether. Since then it has become one of the great curiosities and luxuries of the German-speaking wine world: rare, weather-dependent, and impossible to mass-produce properly.
Austrian Eiswein is made under similarly strict conditions, with grapes left healthy on the vine until a bitterly cold snap freezes them hard enough to press. This is not a style available every year in every place, which is part of its mystique.
5. Canada: the modern Icewine powerhouse
Canada has emerged as a major Icewine producer and, to many modern wine drinkers, the country most strongly associated with the style. Thanks to reliably freezing winters, especially in Ontario, the Canadians have turned Icewine into a delicious specialty of their wine industry.
In fact, Ontario did a great deal to make Icewine famous around the world. When Inniskillin’s 1989 Vidal Icewine won the Grand Prix d’Honneur at Vinexpo in Bordeaux in 1991, it helped announce to the wider wine world that Canada was not just capable of making Icewine, but capable of making great Icewine.
That success was no fluke. Ontario’s cold winters and long, cool growing season make it especially well suited to the style, and Icewine remains one of the country’s most distinctive vinous achievements.
6. What grapes are used for Ice Wine?
Ice Wine can be made from several grape varieties, but some work better than others. In Ontario, Vidal and Riesling have become especially important. Vidal is a natural fit because it hangs well, keeps its acidity, and copes with the rigours of winter. Riesling tends to produce a more razor-sharp, acid-driven style.
Other grapes can be used too, including Cabernet Franc, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris, and others, but Vidal and Riesling remain among the best known and most convincing expressions of the style.
7. Drink it young—or not?
These wines are all about youthful freshness and purity, so there is a lot to be said for drinking them young. That exuberant fruit, the electric acidity, and the sheer vividness of the wine are part of what make Ice Wine so joyful.
That said, the best bottles can age very well. With time they can move from bright citrus and tropical fruit toward marmalade, honey, dried apricot, and caramelised notes, while still retaining impressive life. Still, if you want to capture Ice Wine at its most dazzling and crystalline, young is usually the way to go.
8. Five Ice Wine producers to look out for
If you want to tick Ice Wine off your wine bucket list properly, these are excellent names to look for:
1) Inniskillin
The modern icon of Canadian Icewine and still one of the most important names in the category. If Ontario Icewine has a calling card, this is surely it.
Find Inniskillin Icewine on Wine-Searcher
2) Peller Estates
One of Canada’s best-known Icewine producers and a very reliable place to start if you want a polished, widely available example of the style.
Find Peller Estates Icewine on Wine-Searcher
3) Pillitteri Estates Winery
A serious Ontario producer with a strong reputation for Icewine and a broad range of bottlings that show just how versatile the style can be.
Find Pillitteri Icewine on Wine-Searcher
4) Schloss Johannisberg
One of the historic names of German wine and exactly the sort of producer that makes the word Eiswein feel noble rather than merely sweet.
Find Schloss Johannisberg Eiswein on Wine-Searcher
5) Alois Kracher
Austria’s great modern sweet-wine specialist. If you want to understand how serious and refined Eiswein can be, Kracher is a name well worth remembering.
Find Alois Kracher Eiswein on Wine-Searcher
9. Quick FAQ
What is the difference between Ice Wine and Eiswein?
Essentially just the language. Eiswein is the German term for Ice Wine.
Is real Ice Wine made from frozen grapes on the vine?
Yes. Proper Ice Wine or Eiswein is made from grapes that freeze naturally on the vine.
Why is Ice Wine so expensive?
Because the yields are tiny, the risks are high, and the grapes must be left hanging until freezing conditions arrive.
Which countries are most famous for Ice Wine?
Germany and Austria are the historic heartlands of Eiswein, while Canada—especially Ontario—is the modern Icewine powerhouse.
Should Ice Wine be drunk young?
Usually, yes. Many are at their most exciting when young, fresh, and bursting with pure fruit, though the best can age beautifully.
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