Icewine Harvest: Finding the Sweetspot

This short film is part two of the latest GOW Short Series on Inniskillin and icewine. Part one "History," provides the Inniskillin background, how it began and how its success placed Canada on the world wine map as a viable fine wine region. In episode three Inniskillin's Estate Chef Tim Mackiddie explains how in recent years icewine has become a secret ingredient for many chefs who love its high acid and sweet demeanour.

“Harvest” is the seldom seen story of how icewine is made. We revelled in Inniskillin’s director of viticulture Gerald Klose retelling the early days of their icewine harvests before he came up with the idea of using machines. Says Klose, "The first night we'd get 60 people, the second night, 30 and then maybe 15 the third night."

The long waits and intense weather conditions are still a part of harvesting ice wine where the temperature must be a minimum -8 celsius from the picking to the pressing. We got a lesson in just how stressful the harvest can be as we stood by waiting to capture footage of both the harvest and the pressing. The forecast would look as though it would be cold enough right up to the day before, but at the last minute, Bruce and Gerald could no longer be sure that they would have the temperatures they needed for the duration of the harvest and would have to cancel. As it turns out, it was an unusually warm January, and we were beginning to believe we were going to run out of time to finish our film. Finally, after a week of daily phone calls and texts, and a strong cold front, we were able to capture the footage we needed.

Thank you so much to Bruce Nicholson and especially Gerald Klose for making the filming possible. Gerald kept us updated with weather conditions and possible harvesting times over a 10 days. Thank you also to John Petrella, our cinematographer, who was on standby and had to wake up in the early morning hours to be ready to film at 5:30 am in temperatures that dipped below -12 Celsius, with the wind chill. Further, he had to capture it all in that one morning or not at all. We think it was worth it, and we hope you agree.

To learn more about Inniskillin: https://www.inniskillin.com

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