Beverage
Ice Wine
Ice wine (Eiswein) is pressed from grapes frozen on the vine—water stays as ice, so the juice is super-concentrated in sugar, acid, and flavour—yielding intense peach, pineapple, honey, and citrus notes with piercing freshness. Riesling, Vidal, and Cabernet Franc are common bases; true ice wine requires natural outdoor freeze, not cryoextraction where regulations forbid it. Drink with blue cheese, fruit tarts, or spicy food; cook with it only in small doses for glazes, dessert sauces, and poached pears. Residual sugar is extreme—reduce over low heat and cut with citrus or stock if a savoury glaze needs balance.
Also known as: Eiswein, Icewine, Eiswein, Ice Wine
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Grading systems
Grades are placed along a shared scale so systems can be compared side by side.
History
Documented German Eiswein production established frozen-grape pressing as a deliberate sweet style.
Canadian icewine, especially Ontario Vidal and Riesling, scaled the style into a global specialty export.
Austrian Eiswein and strict New World standards reinforced natural-freeze quality definitions.