Vermont Grape and Wine Council

Some of Vermont's best wines are dessert wines.  Many wineries around the state offer at least one dessert wine and some specialize in them. Chefs and consumers around the country are realizing that sweeter wines pair better with certain foods than dry ones and Vermont winemakers are stepping up to satisfy that growing market.

Vermont's climate is ideal for the production of ice wines, which are made from grapes left on the vine until they freeze.  The grapes that go into a regular wine are generally picked in late September or October and are sweet enough to make a wine with between 11 and 15% alcohol.  Grapes for Ice Wine are left hanging while the others get picked and are netted so the birds don't eat them.  The ideal time to pick Ice Wine grapes is when the temperature gets down to around  17° degrees which in Vermont is usually late November or December.  At that point the watery content in the grape is frozen solid, while the really sweet juices are  slushy and can be pressed .  The winemaker presses just that sweet nectar and discards the rest.  

Ice Wine pressing takes four times longer than regular wine pressing and is usually done at night.    The sweet juice that results (called "must") can make a wine with normal alcohol levels, but with some sweetness to spare.   Because VT grown Grapes generally ripen with high acidity the result is a wine with finely balanced sweetness and acidity.  Some wineries use specialized yeasts for ice wine fermentation to accommodate the higher than usual amounts of sugar and acid present in the juice.  

The principle of partially freezing your juice and then fermenting the really sweet stuff that doesn't freeze was discovered long ago.  There is evidence that Romans were doing it and it's been going on in Germany for the last few hundred years.   It was not until the invention of the pneumatic bladder press, however, that Ice Wine production became commercially feasible.  Even though people were aware of how delicious a wine made from a partially frozen grape could be, crushing the grapes was just too difficult to do on a large scale.  Since the invention of the pneumatic press cold climate countries like France and Germany have been making Ice Wines, as have Canada and states in the Northern U.S.   

Eden Ice Cider is using the beneficial properties of freezing in their flagship Ice Cider. But unlike the grapes for Ice Wine, the apples for Ice Cider are harvested at their normal time and it's the juice that is frozen.   They then separate the sugary slush from the ice and proceed from there.   Lots of other Vermont wineries are making Ice Wines or are in the planning stages. Lincoln Peak recently came out with a very limited batch of Ice Wine made from the new, cold hardy Swenson Grapes, .  

Eden is already sold out of their Ice Cider and Shelburne Vineyard has only ten cases left of their 2007 vintage Vidal Blanc Ice Wine.     Fortunately, Snow Farm still has some of their award winning Vidal Blanc Ice Wine and you can pick up North Branch Vineyard’s Vidal Blanc Ice Wine at the Montpelier Winter Farmer’s Market.

Shelburne Vineyard still has some of their Rhapsody Ice Wine, made from Arctic Riesling grapes and also has Nocturne and LaCrescent, two late harvest wines that are dessert wines, slightly less sweet than the Ice wines.  Boyden Valley has more of their Vermont Iced Red (made from Frontenac grapes) and Vermont Ice, a white Ice Wine made from LaCrescent grapes.   Boyden Maple Gold Leaf is a perennial favorite, and Honey Gardens' Melody Sweet Mead is an excellent new addition to the sweet wine category.  

You can find VT dessert wines in stores and restaurants around the state, but for an even sweeter experience, visit the wineries and talk to the people who make them!