From the 2019 vintage, ice wine could only be produced in a German wine-growing region - an absolute premiere that not only affects the winegrowers. How do friends of dessert wine get their enjoyment anyway?
Bodenheim (dpa / tmn) - The winegrowers left their most beautiful grapes hanging and waited for at least minus seven degrees of frost - in vain almost everywhere! A single winemaker from Korb in Remstal in Württemberg was able to produce an ice wine from the 2019 vintage. Its almost 100 liters should be a special rarity for lovers.
Are ice wine lovers otherwise going empty-handed this year? At least there is "a sweet alternative that also harmonizes with creamy desserts," says Ernst Büscher from the German Wine Institute (DWI) - and suggests a berry or dry berry selection.
Ice wine and berry selection are comparable in terms of sweetness. But the difference between the two fine dessert wines is in their character, the wine expert told the dpa themed service: While floral aromas and peach notes are typical for the ice wine, a berry selection with aromas of caramel, honey and raisins can score points.
"This is due to the raisin-like, dried berries," explains Büscher. They are painstakingly read out of the whole berry cluster, "literally picked out as raisins". In the further production process, too, it was not that easy to ferment the juice from the raisin berries.
A liter of berry selection has a natural sugar content of almost 300 grams, a dry berry selection even more. "It is difficult for yeasts to survive there. This is comparable to jams that are actually supposed to be preserved with sugar. The opposite effect is required when making wine," says the DWI spokesman.
Great winegrowing skills are required to ensure that the minimum 5.5 volume percent required for dry selection comes out. With the sugar, the fruit acid is also concentrated in the berries. Because the grape varieties naturally have different levels of acidity, Büscher advises that berries or dried berries be selected from Riesling grapes: "They naturally have high fruit acids." The wine is perceived as fruity-fresh and not as sticky-sweet.
Beerenauslese goes well with fruit salad as well as crème brûlée, says Büscher: "But my insider tip is to try it with blue cheese or a blue Stilton. The noble sweet wine forms a fantastic contrast on the palate with the salty and bitter of the cheese."
Not a single winemaker in Germany has brought an ice wine to the cellar this winter. "The 2019 vintage will go down in history here in Germany as the first year in which the ice harvest has failed nationwide," says Ernst Büscher from the German Wine Institute. The minimum temperature of minus seven degrees Celsius required for ice-cream harvesting had not been reached in any of the 13 German wine-growing regions. In the previous year, grapes for ice wine could still be harvested in eight German wine-growing regions.
In recent years, the conditions have often not been optimal for ice wine production, the institute explained: From the 2017 vintage, only seven producers nationwide were able to harvest ice wine - three in Württemberg, three in Saale-Unstrut and one in Baden. Ice wine from the 2014 vintage is also an absolute rarity. The good years of ice wine include the vintages 2012 and 2015.