Eiswein - Ice Wine

Posting this on 30th December, I can report 2019 has generally been a bad year for ice wine in these parts - not cold enough. It needs temperatures of around -7°C to make the expensive sweet delicacy.

The photo is of the remains of one of my vines. The other one has long been eaten. Only about 4 bunches of small, quite tasty sweet grapes. The vine in the photo has like last year produced a very good crop but these are not so sweet and would profit from being left out until December when one could expect the right temperatures.

Having said that, if it wasn't for our own chickens and the wild birds helping themselves, the chances are a complete intact harvest might just produce two glasses. I did try something two years ago but it was horrible. I only opened the bottles yesterday and they were undrinkable.

Added to the animals stealing the grapes, it is a gamble especially if it is relatively warm that the grapes simply rot. So the high price is justified, added to that it can be difficult to recruit "non-seasonal" workers prepared to go out in subzero temperatures with headlamps to harvest the crop and get it to the winery before they thaw. Like them, my blip was taken at night with the camera flash.