Mild winter melts N.S. icewine hopes
Without a cold snap, grape growers in Nova Scotiafear this year's icewineharvest will be lost.
"We had a few days of cold weather in early December and we got a few hundred litres off," said Hans Christian Jost, with the Jost Vineyards winery. "Now it doesn't look like there will be more cold weather this year."
The specialty product is only produced in a few countries, where the climate is warm enough to grow the grapes and cold enough to freeze them on the vine.
To make icewine, Jost needs temperatures of at leastâ8 Cfor a few days. The immediate forecast calls for rain, not snow.
The grapes, typically Vidal or Riesling,and the wine they make are extremely valuable to the industry because icewine is such a specialty. A small bottle of Jost's icewine sells for almost $50.
"If you buy a half bottle of it, you have to consider that it is the equivalent of five or six bottles of regular wine in terms of the grapes used," Jost said.
Jost saidright now his Vidal grapes are still sweetening on the vine, but they are shrinking.