“A little sweetness for the road? » Said like that, we seem to be in for a festive, grandpa-style digestive. And yet. Ice wine is an exceptional and rare alcoholic beverage, which especially satisfies enlightened lovers of sweet wines. Those who appreciate the difficult process and the efforts to obtain it as much as its sweet and fruity, but paradoxically acidic, flavor.
Ice wine? Nothing to do with a glass left in the freezer, we are talking here about a confidential wine produced from naturally frozen grapes. A grape harvested late in mid-January 2024, when temperatures had dropped – this is the condition sine qua non – below – 7°C in France, and even – 9°C in Germany. The manufacturing process, dating from the end of the 18th century, comes from Germany (and Austria), where it is called “Eiswein”. Canada, the world’s leading producer, calls it “Icewine”. In France, weather permitting, it is mainly in Alsace that it is produced, generally under the name of special vintage given to the choice of the farms.
A bet on the weather
In the small Bas-Rhin village of Dambach-la-Ville, Eric Kamm, a young winegrower from the family estate Vins d’Alsace Jean-Louis and Eric Kamm, was only able to release 50 liters of ice wine this year. Or four times less than in 2020, its last vintage. A small success all the same when we know that many other winegrowers have completely given up. It must be said that producing this nectar is a real gamble on the weather, and in turn on the finances of the farm. Because leaving the bunches of grapes on the vine until January, hoping for significantly negative temperatures, is to risk seeing them rot before then in the autumn rains. Which was the case this year.
In the Kamm family, we chose, like every year, to force destiny by reserving around fifteen acres (of the 7 hectares that make up the farm), on granite. The advantage? The soils are very filtering. “It really allows water to evacuate and avoid acid rot, great aeration,” explains the thirty-year-old, who has already produced four vintages in the past.
This year, the Kamm estate saved the furniture and produced around a hundred 50 cl bottles. In total, 80% of the harvest was lost. “But it’s part of the game, it’s like that, you win, you lose,” confides the winegrower, a bit fatalistic. A loss due to rain, but especially to game and birds despite the nets supposed to protect the vines. “They cleaned everything up!” For the game, as they had nothing left to eat, they understood that there was still sugar in the vines, the forest was not far away. For them, this plot was a 3 star.”
A name that does not say its name
So here we are in the presence of an exceptional wine, generally sold for 100 euros for 50 cl in Alsace, and whose very name is full of mystery and reserved rights. So much so that it is impossible to find it mentioned on the label of a French bottle, because the designation is protected in Germany. So, in Alsace, it’s a little less glamorous. “We are talking about a selection of “noble grains”, we have no legislation for these grain selections, explains from Eguisheim, in Haut-Rhin, Matthew Ginglinger, from the eponymous domain. He himself called his special vintage Clair de lune, a Gewurztraminer, an ice wine and therefore, in 2007, his latest. We don’t usually write Ice Wine, but we explained to people that it was harvested in the same way,” smiles the winegrower.
A niche wine, too. Among those to have one day attempted the adventure, we count Yves Amberg, winegrower in Epfig. The Alsatian launched in 1994 and then succeeded in three vintages…. His last attempt, failed in the year 2000, dissuaded him from continuingr. “But why not, one day, repeat the experience? “.
Before drinking, you have to sweat
But before sticking the label, let’s talk about the harvest. Last Friday early in the morning, while it was still dark, lit by headlamps and the headlights of stationary tractors, a small tribe of friends were busy in Eric Kamm’s vineyards. The equipment having been put away for a few weeks, the team brought out the small wooden hand press. “We were not going to bring out the big presses for such small quantities. At the same time, it’s a bit part of folklore,” rejoices Eric Kamm.
Why all this hassle? It’s a challenge, another vision of winemaking and the concentration of the grapes. He explains: “Instead of having the berry dehydrated by a fungus, we add cryoconcentration (cold), which allows the richest parts of the grape to be frozen. When you squeeze it, the liquid parts that will flow are the richest like the fat, the aroma, the acid too. And when it flows from the press, it makes a kind of honey, a thick juice,” says the winemaker.
Then comes the time to rest, well almost. “We leave it to ferment naturally for several years in a wooden barrel, because we work in the bottle without filtration, without adding sulphites,” recalls the winemaker, whose farm is certified organic. The sugar turns into alcohol, it goes very high. The alcohol will kill the yeasts naturally present on the grapes, we try to find a good balance, a natural harmony between sugar and alcohol. We leave room for the unknown, from one vintage to another. »
In the end, on the gourmet table, a wine around 15° alcohol with an orange, golden color, that of an unfiltered Gevert. To taste, a very airy wine, “very mineral thanks to the granite soil, very tense, saline, with a fresh, nervous structure on the palate. » A little candied fruit side too, adds an inexhaustible Eric Kamm, with “a side of quetsche, mirabelle plums, very ripe apple, and at the same time a little spice from the upper Gewurzt. A slightly roasted and woody side from the barrel and this acidity which takes the wine to the end, which will not flatten out, to make it very digestible although it is a sweet wine”… In short, connoisseurs will understand. We, at 20 minuteswe had a great time.