Brutal cold has arrived, and so has the 2019 Upstate NY ice wine harvest (photos)

By Don Cazentre

Bundle up. It’s time to pick the grapes for ice wine in Upstate New York.

As temperatures dipped into the single-digits in recent days, wineries from the Finger Lakes to the Thousands Islands and beyond sent brave employees into their vineyards to harvest frozen-on-the-vine grapes. These will be turned into the sweet, luscious and boldly flavored traditional version of ice wine.

“It was actually a good good day -- very cold in the morning and we got everything off the vines by sun-up,” said Andrea O’Neill, president of Casa Larga Vineyards in Fairport just outside Rochester. Casa Larga harvested vidal blanc grapes for its 2019 ice wine on Friday. “It’s cold but worth it.”

The air temperature was in the low teens, O’Neill said, but the windchill was down around zero. The cold allowed the winery to leave the press house doors open, ensuring the grapes stayed frozen through the process. “That’s just about the perfect conditions for us," she said.

Further north, Coyote Moon Vineyards in Clayton in the Thousand Islands wine region waited until Saturday’s forecast of 4-degree weather to send its pickers into the vineyards. They found a “perfect day” to harvest Frontenac grapes, a variety that thrives in deep cold, for ice wine.

"In this instance ‘perfect day’ equates to ‘ridiculously cold,’ " the winery’s ice wine harvest notice reported. “But that’s the way it must be for a true ice wine.”

Pressing grapes that have been allowed to freeze on the vine means there’s less water in them, concentrating the sugars and acids and creating more intense flavor and aroma. The resulting wines often have powerful flavors like plum, raisin and honey.

But that traditional, or some would say authentic, method increases the risks: In some years, variable weather conditions in certain vineyards make for low yields (quantities) or produce grapes that don’t have the right characteristics for quality ice wine.

That happened this year at Hunt Country Vineyards on Keuka Lake, New York state’s (and possibly America’s) oldest ice wine maker. Hunt Country isn’t harvesting for ice wine this year because its winemakers didn’t think this year’s grapes were suitable.

“It’s a gamble every season, and this year was such a wet year that the grapes aren’t in the optimal condition we prefer for our ice wine,” said Hunt Country spokesman Matt Kelly. Hunt Country is known for its attention to quality ice wine -- and it still has some of its award-winning 2016 vintage in stock.