Ice wine is known as the "liquid gold in wine", with high nutritional value. The definition of ice wine is: ice wine is a kind of sweet
wine. Below - 8 ℃, ice wine is made by naturally frozen grapes on grapevine. When grapes are frozen into solid state, a small amount of
concentrated grape juice is obtained by picking and pressing. The grape juice is slowly fermented and then aged for several months. The
grapes used for making ice wine are picked and brewed at - 8 ℃ after the winter snow.
When the world's youth is gone, the wind and frost come, and the grape leaves that have worked hard for a year are gradually returning to
their roots. The grapes that still grow on vine are beginning to crave for the essence of sunlight, air, soil, rain, and even more than
ten miles away. They will eventually dehydrate and concentrate into extremely nutritious ice grape juice.
In December, grape growers will closely observe the weather conditions. When the temperature is below - 8 ℃, they will start picking them
in the middle of the night. Most wineries will use manual picking. The ice grapes picked are hard and sound like marble when they are
poured into the collection bucket. It stops at 8:00 a.m. because the temperature starts to pick up during the day and the grapes on the
vine will soften.
After picking, the ice grape will be squeezed immediately, that is, pressing with ice. The large extruder used for extrusion must be set
outdoors, because the indoor temperature is high, the ice grapes will thaw. And the extrusion temperature should be in line with the ice
wine production specifications, that is, the external temperature should be lower than - 8 ℃. The juice of grapes for making ordinary
wine flows out rapidly during extrusion, while the juice of ice grape slowly flows out bit by bit. It takes 4-6 hours to squeeze at a
time. Only about half a kilogram of juice can be squeezed out from 15-50 kg grape to make a bottle of 375 ml ice wine. In other words, a
drop of ice wine (1ml ice wine) needs 10 ice grapes, and a bottle of 375 ml ice wine needs 3750 ice grapes.
Ice wine is mainly concentrated in Northeast China. Yalu River Valley is located in Ji'an City, which is "small Jiangnan of Jilin
Province". It has a humid temperate monsoon climate. It is cold in winter and warm in summer. Because it is located at 41 ° n, due to the
water source of Baishan green water and the birth of high organic soil, the unique East Asian Native ice grape grows here. The soil here
has good permeability and rich minerals, which is very suitable for grape growth. At the same time, the pollution-free ecological
environment also laid the foundation for the production of high-quality ice grape. The superior climate, soil and ecological conditions
make the Yalu River Valley in Ji'an become the dominant grape producing area in China.
