Last Fall's Cold Weather Leads To Ice Wine From Virginia

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Aug 6th 2007 at 12:02PM

Ice wine is usually associated with places much further north but AmRhein Wine Cellars in Virginia has taken advantage of a cold snap last fall to produce a pricey ice wine. Last November, the grapes at the AmRhein vineyards froze and so the winery harvested the grapes and used them to create the sweet desert wine. It takes more grapes and more fermentation time to create an ice wine than it does for a regular wine. The Vidal Blanc ice wine sells for $45 for a half bottle. There will be 56 cases of 12 bottles each.

It's an interesting reflection on the world's changing weather since around the time that AmRhein was enjoying their first ice wine harvest last year, wineries in more northern areas were contemplating a poor harvest.

Tags: amrhein wine cellars, dessert wine, ice wine, IceWine, virginia