
2019 will be the first wine vintage without ice wine - It's getting hot in here

The 2019 vintage will go down ingloriously in the history of viticulture. Due to climate change and increased temperatures, not a single winemaker in Germany managed to produce ice wine last year.
How is ice wine made? The wine, also called sweet wine or dessert wine, was invented by winemakers in the 19th century. Ice wine was originally used to process grapes that were not harvested. By hanging on the vine for a longer period of time, the grapes developed an extremely sweet taste, which the winegrowers used to make a new wine product.
Ice wine grapes usually grow in winter when the grapes experience prolonged frost. Normally -7 degrees Celsius is enough for a few days. By the way, white grapes are used most often.
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When the grapes freeze, the water separates from the fruit acid and, when pressed, produces a higher concentration of sugar or juice, which develops the typical sweet taste.
Why is ice wine so difficult to make?
The production of ice wine is inherently linked to several risks. On the one hand, the frost must not be too long or too severe, otherwise the grapes will be unusable, but on the other hand, temperatures that are too mild can prevent the production of ice wine at all.
In general, around 10% of the planned initial quantity becomes ice wine, which can be bottled. Nevertheless, ice wine has been produced every year in Germany, some areas have been more fortunate, others less so.
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What happened to the 2019 vintage?
The 2019 wine vintage, i.e. the grapes harvested for normal wine in 2019, could not be processed into ice wine due to the persistent mild temperatures. The grapes should have been harvested by the end of January 2020 at the latest, but no suitable harvest for ice wine could be found anywhere in Germany.
Austria was lucky; in Burgenland, for example, ice wine of the Muscat variety could be harvested. The lack of German dessert wines is not a major economic problem for many ice wine growers due to the small quantities, but it still damages the reputation of German wine overall.
In recent years, German dessert wines have achieved record prices at auctions and wine competitions. German sweet wines are particularly popular in Asia, the USA and Scandinavia.
But as early as 2017, there were only 7 producers in the Federal Republic who managed to produce ice wine. In addition to the mild winters, the extremely hot summers are also problematic for winegrowers, as the grapes have to “survive” an increasingly longer period of time until they are harvested.
What does this mean for the future of ice wine?
In summary, the mild winters, in which the right conditions for ice wine are lacking, and the enormous heat waves in summer are the reasons why German ice wine is increasingly becoming a rarity and the 2019 vintage will not produce any dessert wine at all. The German Wine Institute in Bodenheim near Mainz sees German ice wine in general under threat.
After the extremes of recent years, climate change is now clearly showing its teeth in Germany and is banning a German product from the supermarket this year.
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Author: Alexander Herberstein; Article image ice wine by Chiyacat / Shutterstock.com
Notes:
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